Cable news fight heats up, begins to resemble the wild west

MSNBC, CNN, Fox News. The Big three of the cable broadcasting business. Left, middle, right. Perfect harmony, right? Well, from the way things are shaping up, it's anything but perfect harmony. The battle between the cable news networks is beginning to resemble a gunfight between Fox News and MSNBC - and CNN is stuck right in the middle of it.

First of all, CNN recently fell to fourth place among cable news prime time broadcasts. Wait, fourth place? "I thought there were only three," you say. Well, CNN's sister network, HLN (which until recently was known as CNN Headline News) beat out CNN itself. What would cause the creator of the 24/7 cable news genre to be beaten out by all of its competitors? Simply this: its competitors (speaking only of MSNBC and Fox at this point) appeal to niche markets, while CNN is trying to take the high road - and seems to be getting lost along the way.

MSNBC and Fox News are both taking the strategy of putting a spin on their news to attract viewers. Fox News has always been right-leaning (to put it mildly), and MSNBC leans toward the left (again, to put it mildly). Now, if this were all that were going on, there would probably be harmony in the cable news world. But there's more. MSNBC and Fox News anchors have been battling it out lately, hurling insults and accusation to the other station. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News' parent organization, has even spoken out on the issue - he says MSNBC started it, and Fox News will only stop the insults when MSNBC stops.

Even Sesame Street has gotten in on the debate. That's right, the children's program on PBS. One of the characters on the show recently made a joke about "Pox News," saying, "now there's a trashy news show." The show originally aired in 2008, but when it was rerun recently, it started being circulated around the blogosphere and YouTube. The PBS ombudsman has even spoken out on the issue, condemning the joke.

So what effect does this have on political discussion? In this writer's humble opinion, it destroys any hope of intelligent conversation. It's perfectly OK to have strong opinions on a news show. But, I think they should be counterbalanced by giving the other side's point of view too. It seems to me that MSNBC and Fox should take a page from newspapers like USA Today. On USA Today's opinion page, there are two main editorials every day. One says "Our View," and the other says "Opposing View." They are always on the same topic, but one is written by USA Today editors and the other is written by a guest writer.

This kind of back and forth intelligent conversation is, to me, what the media should be all about. Editorial content is great, but give other side room to show their view too. CNN, it seems to me, is the best at doing this. That's why I'll keep watching CNN. However, Fox News seems to be winning the media battle at the moment. Is this biased media coverage model going to win out in the end? I certainly hope not.