Looking at Scott Collins Los Angeles Times story on the latest FNC/CNN ratings, so dramatically titled "A ratings downer for Fox News," referring to FNC's 17% prime-time drop, The Cable Game has to wonder out loud why the headline wasn't the more relevant "CNN Down 38%." Oh, and CNN prez Jon Klein is spinning so fast you have to wonder if just talking gives him motion sickness:

As for CNN, its lineup showed far greater erosion last month than Fox's. "We're down because we had such a phenomenal year last year," Klein said. The one major growth story at CNN? Lou Dobbs, whose program seems to add viewers in direct proportion to its host's fiercely expressed views against illegal immigration.

Fox News says CNN is merely trying to deflect attention from its own woes. "It's always amusing to watch Jon whistle past his graveyard of failures like Anderson Cooper and 'American Morning' as Fox trounces CNN in breaking news and ratings," Fox spokeswoman Irena Briganti wrote in an e-mail. "We suspect Dick Parsons isn't nearly as entertained." Parsons is the chief of Time Warner, CNN's parent.

Fox News says it's hardly surprising its ratings are down this year, arguing that recent weeks have been fairly tame news-wise compared with April 2005, when Pope John Paul II died and his successor was chosen. What's more, O'Reilly took seven nights off last month, the network says, leading to lower ratings overall for his program. But Fox has clearly reached some sort of turning point in audience dynamics. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the network soared as if wearing flubber shoes, with gravity-defying, double-digit growth during news cycles slow and fast. Now it's subject to the same laws of physics that encumber every mature network.

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