Last night wasn't the first time The Daily Show lampooned CNN, but this one may hurt a bit more due to the network's steep decline in ratings for Q-1 2010.
Cnn's most popular hosts, Larry King and Anderson Cooper, both lost over 40 percent market share to the more politicized offerings at Fox and MSNBC.
Commentators like Fox's Scott Hannity and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow are on the upswing while the CNN guys fade.
CNN is in a no-win position as it attempts to defend its notion of objectivity in an era that is anything but objective. And although the network has tried to implement more interactive features such as its iReport, it has not been willing to truly transform itself.
Although many will draw the lesson that you have to be more explicit politically in order to thrive in today's cable TV world, (as the ratings suggest) I actually think the problem is somewhat different and much more profound.
Today, you have to become skilled at sharing your brand. All organizations, including media, have to engage on a deep level with their stakeholders, which increasingly means a community of viewers/users active via social media sites.
Objectivity as a content business model belongs to the old media paradigm, where in truth it never worked very well. After all, who gets to determine what is objective?
In today's networked world, the public is pretty much in charge of making that determination. And right now, the most active parts of the public, to paraphrase the immortal Jessica Mitford, care far more about achieving a particular objective than pursuing the ideal of objectivity.
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