Cnn, Broadcast News | featured news

Incoming CNN President Jeff Zucker said Thursday that he intends to make the network more "vibrant and exciting" while broadening the programming on television's original but struggling cable news outlet. The former NBC Universal chief's long-rumored selection as CNN president was announced Thursday. He'll start in January and report to Phil Kent, who runs all the Turner networks for parent company Time Warner.

Christine O'Donnell is defending her decision to walk off Piers Morgan's CNN show by saying he was asking sexually harassing questions -- including "sex questions that he would not ask of a man."

It appears CNN has hit another speed bump on its road to reinvention. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the cable network is quietly considering replacing conservative Kathleen Parker as co-host on the show currently titled Parker Spitzer. The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, along with her co-host, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, has failed to drum up the sort of buzz the news operation is after, much less garner ratings to make it competitive with rivals Fox News and MSNBC. (A CNN spokesperson told Forbes it “does not comment on speculation.”)

Iconic TV interviewer Larry King will step aside from hosting his prime-time CNN show this fall, he said. King said he will still be hosting specials on CNN.

In the light of the recent ratings news--CNN implodes, FOX soars, MSNBC does okay--it's worth asking a question that no one seems to have a good answer to: Why is conservative media crushing liberal media?

John King is replacing Lou Dobbs on CNN. Jon Klein, CNN president, said Thursday that veteran reporter King will move into the 7 p.m. EST slot that's been vacated by Lou Dobbs. King will host a show about politics beginning early next year.

Lou Dobbs, the CNN anchor whose views on immigration made him a lightning rod, is leaving the network.