It's Not How Long You Make It, It's How You Make It Long

LAT's Joe Flint.  Spitzer'll be spewing political jism on a reconstituted 'Crossfire' at 8p replacing the ratings-challenged Campbell Brown.

'Pompous ass' Spitzer - accustomed to coming within seconds - will be forced to s-t-r-e-t-c-h to climax in the still-untitled show starting in the fall with conservative columnist co-host Kathleen 'Ignorant Slut' Parker.

CNN's acquisition of the disgraceful hooker-loving NY govenor is a below-the-belt hit on TV news . . . Different strokes for different folks ...

CB is divining titles for Spitzer's new show.  Any suggestions?  Mine:  'Lady and The Tramp.' One CB commenter below suggests 'John & Kate at 8.'

Read the CNN press release with Jon Klein's unfortunate reference to 'force-feeding': “Other cable news channels force-feed viewers one narrow, predictable point of view; in contrast, CNN will be offering a lively roundup of all the best ideas – presented by two of the most intelligent and outspoken figures in the country,” Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S., said in a statement released by the network. “Eliot and Kathleen are beholden to no vested interest – in fact, quite the opposite: they are renowned for taking on the most powerful targets and most important causes.”

NYP first sentence:  'What hooker scandal?'

NYDN first line:  'Eliot Spitzer is going from the dog house to CNN's house.'

NYT's Bill Carter talked with Spitzer after CNN's big announcement:

Eliot Spitzer described himself as “extremely thankful” to be getting an opportunity to revive his reputation as a television news host after the tawdry circumstances of his forced resignation as governor of New York. In a telephone interview discussing his appointment Tuesday to the co-host role in a new prime-time hour on CNN, Mr. Spitzer acknowledged that he would have to deal with the continuing fallout from his admission of patronizing call girls as he tried to rehabilitate his image on the news program. If the subject of the night’s news discussion touches in some way on behavior of public officials or sexual peccadilloes, Mr. Spitzer said simply, “We’ll deal with it.” He acknowledged that guests might try to turn the discussion back on him when he pressed them on questions of behavior or judgment. “So be it,” Mr. Spitzer said. Mr. Spitzer will be paired with Kathleen Parker, a conservative columnist for The Washington Post. The two hosts said that they intended the new show to be lively discussion with regular injections of humor, but nothing like the old “Crossfire” show on CNN, which featured loud dueling voices on the right and left. Mr. Spitzer, who earlier in his career gained a reputation for being an intensely aggressive prosecutor, said the hosts would “push each other to change views,” but not in a hostile way. “We’ll do a lot of listening,” he said. The appointment of a disgraced governor who evaded possible prosecution by resigning from office is likely to raise eyebrows both with some of CNN’s viewers, and, Mr. Spitzer conceded, some staff members inside CNN. When Mr. Spitzer’s name was being floated as a possibility for the job, several CNN staff members quietly expressed unhappiness that someone with a name mainly known for inappropriate behavior might be getting rewarded for his notoriety. Mr. Spitzer said, “People are entitled to their own views. I respect that.”

Huffington Post's Danny Shea has a far better interview where Kathleen Parker praises rivals Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann as 'amazing' and 'giants in their field' but 'we will be offering an alternative to them.'

The first time Parker met Eliot, she went to his office and swallowed his fruit.  Well, she didn't exactly say it that way to Shea . . .

CB:  The operative word:  credibility. With the Spitzer hire, any shred CNN had left is gone.  CNN's old slogan 'The Most Trusted Name In News' should be replaced with 'The Most Lusted Name In News.'

Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik: 

CNN is going to do it. The cable channel that said it wasn't in the business of airing shows involving an ideological debate premise is launching one this fall. And it will feature Eliot Spitzer as a co-host, the former New York governor who resigned after his relationships with prostitutes and attempts to cover up the evidence of those liaisons were revealed. This might be where I ultimately get off the train of unqualified support for CNN as the last best hope of a full-service, US-based, global news network. Forgive me if I am not feeling too good about this "news," given the countless times in the last few years that I have supported CNN/US President Jon Klein's call for a news channel dedicated to "down the middle" facts and analysis. I'll hold off pre-judging and screaming bloody murder until I see the show on-air, but as I said in a previous post, I don't know how any channel committed to journalistic integrity makes a host out of a guy who betrayed the public's trust by his actions and then tried to cover it up by manipulating the very records of his deception. Forgive me again, but that feels like the Richard Nixon School of Ethics to me.  When you no longer have the credibility to be governor of New York, you might think, what's left? The new answer: A co-hosting job on CNN. Remember the old Democratic campaign posters that showed Nixon with a cutline that said: Would you buy a used car from this man? Well, maybe Fox or MSNBC can put one out this fall with Spitzer on it that says: Would you trust this man for your news and analysis? Sorry, but this is the very sort of thing that undermines the credibility of every hard-working journalist in cable news -- and CNN has lots of them.