CNN is very proud of itself

Jim Walton memo to CNN staff:

"Congratulations and sincere thanks to all involved in our election coverage. The coverage we provided was spectacular - on-line, on-air, and with our affiliates. Whether through the innovative use of technology or simply the foresight to request space on the convention floor for an anchor platform, Princell Hair, Jane Maxwell and David Bohrman led the network's effort to create a unique viewing experience and Mitch Gelman led a cutting-edge team with our on-line efforts.

"Looking at the total programming and technology package, no other news organization covering the Democratic convention came close to providing what we did this past week -- fast paced, informative, technologically rich and up-close coverage of this important political event. As always, our true distinction was in the quality of our reporting.

"The experience of our political anchors and reporters and the expertise of our political unit led by Tom Hannon is second-to-none. My sincere thanks to everyone who contributed to our convention coverage for a job well done.

"All of these efforts have paid off and our viewers have responded. We have been the most-watched primetime cable news network this past week. Additionally, CNN.com had the most users of all news organization websites.

"I thank all those involved for their hard work and time away from their families. You can be proud of what you have accomplished. I certainly am. "

Yes, indeedy, you should be very, very proud of subjecting the American viewing public to a steady stream of GOP talking points, the mindless bleatings of such vegetable life as Wolf Blitzer, Judy Woodruff, Bill Schneider and Jeff Greenfield, and that convention-floor anchor platform, which gave every delegate in Boston the opportunity to make some sort of amusing hand or body gestures for the camera.

To be fair, the late-night stuff with Larry King did offer some interesting nuggets, such as last night's battle between Jon Cusack and Tucker Carlson.

And CNN was no more asinine than MSNBC, where Tweety seemed to dig nightly for new levels of foaming incompetence, with the water-headed Howard Fineman riding shotgun. These two made Joe Scarborough and Andrea Mitchell seem almost dignified.

Fox News, of course, doesn't actually count as a "news organization." Anything journalistically credible that happened on Fox was purely accidental.

That leaves PBS, which was dull as dishwater, with its roundtable of soft-spoken professors and benign, middle-brow talking heads Mark Shields and David Brooks. But it was also consistently fair-minded and more often than not insightful.