First, Fox is not a Republican network. It has more conservatives than the other channels, but that's no saying much. Nobody think that its news, as distinct from opinion, is conservative. And Fox makes room for independent thinkers, such as Juan Williams, recently purged, as well remember, from NPR.
Second, more to the point here, CNN is plenty liberal. Some of us are old enough to remember CNN's "Tailwind" story from 1998, in which CNN attempted to paint the whole of the US military in Vietnam as a bunch of war criminals. Indeed, one can find a whole site devoted to CNN's left-leaning bias. Just yesterday, "Parker Spitzer" was playing up lefties, and just today, MRC caught CNN's Don Lemon tossing puffballs at yet another lefty guest. So again, CNN is liberal, too--it just lacks strong personalities such as Keith Olbermann, who has an identifiable following. And let's not forget Lawrence O'Donnell, hero to socialists worldwide.
Third, CNN's problem is that the network has no good judgment, left or right. No honest liberal or leftist would want Eliot Spitzer on the air, and while no good programmer would've stuck with Larry King this long, no smart journalist would think that an America-basher such as Piers Morgan was the answer to the problems of the 9 pm slot.
So CNN just isn't very good. That's why it's #3. And no ad campaign will change that.
