I've gotten a couple of emails inquiring as to why I'm not commenting on CNN's new "satirical" news show, D.L. Hughley Breaks the News, featuring occasionally funny but somewhat culturally irrelevant comedian D.L. Hughley, uh, breaking the news (get it?). It premiered this past Saturday night and I have to be honest: I had a thing and didn't manage to catch it.
I could easily run down the reasons why the show is likely doomed to fail, regardless of its quality, beginning with the fact that it's the partial brainchild of the most unimaginative, reactive man in television news -- CNN President Jon Klein -- and that he and the rest of the powers that be at CNN will never truly take the reins off the show for fear of tarnishing the network's reputation as a serious news outlet (as if Lou Dobbs and Nancy Grace don't already do that in spades).
But instead I'll leave it to my good friend and fellow ex-CNNer Jacki Schechner to explain, in a quick little quote e-mailed to me today, just what's wrong with D.L. Hughley Breaks the News.
"Nothing about TV news surprises me anymore. But I guess what struck me here is that CNN’s been looking for the answer to The Daily Show for years. And they just don’t get it. The Daily Show succeeds because it points out the absurdity of networks like CNN. CNN can’t repeat that success without acknowledging its own idiocy. But for Jon Klein to think they can is indicative of just how not in on the joke they are."
Yup -- that about sums it up.
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