PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

My comments, as filed with the New York Times online site:

America's Got Talent? Apparently, not enough talent to staff up its own news channels.

This choice is absurd, but not extraordinary, except for CNN, which made a practice in its first 20 or so years of growing its own talent and giving them wings. This choice says to all those at CNN who labor in obscurity and hope, perhaps, to hit a measure of fame and fortune while still relative youth smiles on them, no, fergetaboutit.

To my mind, it reflects a lack of confidence both in CNN and on the part of executives who would make such a choice. Larry King had a small, but devoted, following on all night radio when he was picked by CNN. Although he was a veteran radio talk show guy, he was in no way famous or any kind of a celebrity. He was very good, but he was obscure. He helped make the channel and its brand anyway.

Now, they want to make the choice of someone who has proved himself in \"big time\" television and there aren't that many available. So, they pick a guy to whom our system of voting, our democracy and all the ins and outs of America are, literally, foreign.

Asking questions on important issues should proceed from passionate concern about the country in which you live and be fueled by a keen, active intelligence, actively engaged. Well, he's only missing forty years or so of experience in this country, so maybe, being smart, he'll catch up fast. Right? Wrong.

There are things that can't be taught, lessons that can't be learned, they have been absorbed. They evolve from life lived in the actual circumstances of a nation and its people. This guy will be missing all of that and more. This is an insult to America and, more importantly, all the people who work in broadcast and cable journalism.

We don't need a cocky, boy wonder Brit to come over here, show his erudition and explain America to us or help us understand it. I am sure he’s probably a good interviewer, but so what? We don’t have anyone in this country who can do that? The Brits would never allow anything like this in return. Do any of our sports guys go over there and cover soccer? What the hell does this guy know about Oklahoma or Colorado or anywhere else beyond New York or LA? What does he know about our history?

Most likely, he will come in with the idea of doing celebrities and tarting up the show, leaving a smidgen of nights for more serious issues. I have been in England, watched their television “chat shows” and, for one, I want no part of it. He is likely to be utterly lost in a time of American tragedy, like that which happened in Oklahoma City or on 9-11, 2001. What would he have made of the election mess in 2000? Why should he care?

Larry King was no way a scholar or even a serious student of major American social or political issues. He was, anyway, a grand success. He has a kind of everyman quality, with a touch of Miami and New York, that appealed to millions. He often asked dumb questions, but he got good answers.

What is needed on any network or cable channel is something distinctive, but not merely different for its own sake, but, above all, good. CNN risks turning its 9 PM slot into nothing more than one more choice in the 120 channel universe. If Morgan tries his       Ox-bridge snotboy routine on CNN, it will work out even less well than otherwise. I would think a British interviewer would go over about as well in many parts of this country about as well as a deep, US southern accent would go over in England: not at all.

Doug Terry

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