LARRY KING: “CNN’S GOT PROBLEMS”

Three years after Larry King’s departure from CNN after 26 years, the cable news network is facing even greater challenges than it did when he was forced out, something that King himself took note of in an interview with HuffPost Live on Wednesday. “CNN’s got problems,” he told the website. “I don’t know what they’re going to do.” King’s comment came one day after it was disclosed that CNN’s ratings in the last quarter were down 39 percent in primetime among total viewers and 35 percent among viewers 25-54 versus a year ago. The network continues to be clobbered by Fox News, who’s continued success King appeared to envy. “Fox News is so successful,” he said, but then quickly added, “Fair and balanced? C’mon, who are we kidding? I like [Fox News Chairman] Roger [Ailes]. He’s a great showman. He knows how to run a network. He’s done a great job, but they are certainly not an impartial news network.” King cited an article by Frank Rich in the current New York, which observed that Fox News may have viewers, but they don’t have political clout. “In the last six elections, they’ve lost five.” King quipped that following the State of the Union speech, he was able to figure out how the cable news pundits would appraise Obama’s performance. “I’ll give you something shocking. I knew Fox News — don’t know how to tell you this — didn’t like the State of the Union. … but MSNBC kinda thought it [was] progressive. And CNN didn’t know what to think.”