A Challenge to CNN's Jonathan Klein...

Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Joe Scarborough, Chris Matthews, Tucker Carlson, Pat Buchanan, Robert Novak, John Gibson and Neil Cavuto versus Keith Olbermann wasn't imbalanced enough for cable news stations, so CNN just made the bold move of hiring THREE MORE CONSERVATIVES!

How do you like that for fair and balanced?

And this is being generous by counting Olbermann as someone on the left, when he makes no claim to speak for liberals or even to being political. This is also not counting Wolf Blitzer, who hasn't met a Republican talking point he didn't want to make out with.

Two weeks ago CNN announced they were hiring Bill Bennett. Then they doubled down (pun intended Bill) by hiring the loathsome Glenn Beck. Now, they just finished off the hat trick by hiring former Republican Congressmen from Oklahoma, J.C. Watts.

It's sad to see how clueless the people at CNN are about this. After all their efforts at finding new programming, their genius move was to hire more conservative hosts? Very, very bold. That should really set you apart from the pack.

If you want to see how copying FOX works out for you in the ratings race, just look over at MSNBC (you would be the first person who turned them on in two hours).

I was once in a television meeting where cable executives fretted over hiring a Jew as a host because they weren't sure that would go over well in the middle of the country. This was after the overwhelming success of "Seinfeld." They named the show Seinfeld and it was number one for about 35 straight years. And these schmucks (who by the way, in a great twist of irony were also Jewish) thought Jews on TV might not work well.

Now, a new set of cable television geniuses bring you the revolutionary idea of adding the 187th conservative talk show host in a row. Hey Einstein (who also didn't sell well in the middle of the country), how about adding a strong, liberal voice for counter-programming? Or did they not teach you that in TV Exec 101?

59 million Americans voted for John Kerry. And when they turn on cable news, who do they have representing their side?A former ESPN anchor, kind of. Is there any chance that if you put a forceful advocate on the other side that you might attract some of those 59 million people to your channel? Probably best not to try. You wouldn't want to upset Rupert Murdoch.

I don't know if Jonathan Klein, the president of CNN, made all of these decisions but I have to assume that he is the man responsible for these hires since his bio on CNN's website clearly states he is "responsible for management oversight of all programming, editorial tone and strategic direction of the network."

How about this for a strategic direction? Put on at least one person who will represent half the country who voted for a Democrat and who now can't stand Bush (that figure is up to about sixty percent of the country at this point).

Does anyone want to make money in this country anymore? More than half the television audience is just sitting out there waiting to be scooped up and there isn't one television executive sensible enough to go pick them up. It seems really simple, but to be fair, it might be harder to see this obvious fact if you are distracted by your red, bulbous nose and your big, floppy shoes.

The sad thing is I don't think Jonathan Clown is part of a kooky conservative conspiracy -- at least if he was, I could respect him for boldly going forward with his agenda. Republicans don't need a conspiracy when the people they are trying to influence are this gullible. They just tell the media they are too liberal and the media responds by giving them exactly what they want.

Well, how about the reverse? Why isn't it biased to hire only conservative talk show hosts? If anything, it is overwhelmingly clear that all of cable news station, including CNN, have a conservative bias. I challenge Jonathan Klein to prove me wrong by pointing out one single liberal host they have (not an analyst, and actual host who can control the content of a show instead of being asked Republican talking points by Wolf Blitzer in his endless Situation Room). If you can't point to a single progressive host, isn't it only fair to hire one? If you can't even meet that challenge, than how in the world can you claim you're not biased?