Larry King lost his CNN show at the end of 2010, but he’s still pitching liberal inanities. Media bias? King’s never seen or heard of such a thing.
"Always annoyed me,” he said. “I worked at CNN for almost 26 years. I worked in Mutual Radio for 20 years. I've been in the business 57 years. I have never seen a bias off the air or on," King told talk-show host Steve Malzberg on Wednesday. He’s never seen a feeding frenzy (video below):
"I've never seen anyone say, let's go get this person today, let's really ram it into him. I've never seen it. If a Democrat or Republican commits some horrendous story, we will – the story will run, the networks will cover it. What the public doesn’t understand is, what they [journalists] want, is news. They’re not going to try to – I’ve never seen it.”
He claimed he says “give me an example.” Malzberg said “I could give you three days of examples.” Then King said Fox News was slanted. “You think CBS, NBC and ABC are slanted?” Malzberg said “Absolutely.” King shot back: “I’m telling you they’re not. Give me an example. What was said by Brian Williams that was slanted?”
Malzberg suggested Ray Nagin’s conviction would be reported with no party label. King replied,”First of all, Brian Williams is not on the air yet, so you’re assuming he’s not going to say he’s a Democrat...He’s not on the air yet. So you’re putting words into his mouth before it’s occurred.”
Malzberg cited our Culture and Media Institute's finding that NBC had 13 times as many mentions of gay rights and the Olympics as they did of the persecution of Syrian Christians over the last six months. King replied: “Steve, Steve, I’m glad that you respect me. So respect me. I’ve been in the business 57 years. I have never seen an agenda meeting. I have never seen anyone at CNN ever say, ‘Boy, here’s how we're going to deal with this today to put this guy down and elevate this guy up. I've never seen it," King said Wednesday.
King says CNN's ratings have fallen because "They don't have a lot of appointment viewing. What television depends on, one thing 'Larry King Live' was — whether you liked it, didn't like it — it was appointment viewing," he claimed.
"People said, I'm going to watch 'Larry King Live,' it's 9 o'clock Eastern, I'm going to tune it on. I still hear from people now all the time how much it became a place. It was just – hey it was the longest-running show in the history of television, to be broadcast at the same time on the same network for almost 26 years. So it became part of the culture....there’s a lot to be said for longevity."
He praised CNN's Wolf Blitzer as "a wonderful anchor" and added "young Cuomo in the morning is one of the great personalities on TV. They're probably using him in the wrong place in the morning. I'd have him on in prime time.”
Let’s guess. "Young Cuomo" could take the Piers Morgan spot. Call it "Young Cuomo Live."
King added that he loves Keith Olbermann’s sports show on ESPN2. It’s “one of the great shows on television. The guy is just a genius at what he does...that’s appointment viewing for me!”
He said Fox and MSNBC each have some appointment-viewer shows, but aren’t “great information” channels. "MSNBC is liberal, Fox is conservative, they both make no bones about it. I would not call them the place to get great information. You get information, but they're preaching to the choir," he said. "CNN is in the middle. When a big story breaks, CNN gets viewers, but you don't get a big story every day."
