TV Newser reports on CNN president Jon Klein's appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and it explains a lot about the man who, as the New York Times reported in March, is being advised by Jerry Springer's former media Svengali:
JON KLEIN: "Television's all about visceral experience, whether in a reality program with people eating bugs or a news program with the waves crashing and the wind shrieking and the signs plummeting at your feet."
JON STEWART: "CNN: The 24 hour news network that aspires to be as good as Fear Factor."
Is Klein the same guy who issued a statement nine short months ago saying that his vision for CNN was to create a "relevant, reliable and trusted news network"?
Apparently, the answer is a resounding "yes"--but "Fear Factor" might be a little too tame. The same March NYT piece reports:
"In a segment on 'Paula Zahn Now,' Rick Sanchez, a former local news anchor who worked for [Jerry Springer and Jon Klein adviser] Joel Cheatwood in Miami, strapped on a device known as a shock belt - worn around the waist, it can deliver 50,000 volts of electricity to a person's body - and then gave a simple command: 'Do it.'
"Moments later, Mr. Sanchez moaned audibly, crumpled to the floor, and, still panting after being helped to his feet, reported: 'It hurts. It's painful. But no one's dead.' Mr. Sanchez was attempting to show first-hand how a device like the shock belt might have prevented the courthouse rampage in Atlanta.
"The morning after his program was broadcast, Mr. Klein was euphoric. 'I thought it was great,' he said.
"Stunts like Mr. Sanchez's have also not gone unnoticed at a network where many like to see themselves as providing the equivalent of a video wire service to the world.
"'The only thing more troubling than what Rick did,' said one producer, who insisted on anonymity, so as not to offend his new boss, 'was how much he was praised for doing it.'"
Note to CNN talent: no matter what Jon Klein tells you, hideous physical disfigurement is a very bad on-camera look. Now jump in that shark cage--it's only missing one side!
Note to Jon Klein: stop trying to get Anderson Cooper killed. He can't carry CNN forever.
