Inside the Beltway

‘Rabid’ Fox

CNN has another new network president, its fifth in four years. JonathanKlein’s mission: take back the million-plus viewers CNN has lost to Fox News Channel in fewer than four years.

Take ever-important prime-time numbers (7 to 11 p.m.), as examined by Nielsen Media Research — CNN: 775,000 viewers (Anderson Cooper, Larry King, Paula Zahn, Aaron Brown); Fox: 2 million viewers (Shephard Smith, Sean Hannity & Alan Colmes, Bill O’Reilly).

Mr. Klein’s assessment of his competition?

“They’ve tapped into an outrage that’s lurking among a certain small segment of the population, mostly angry white men, and those men tend to be rabid,” the new CNN chief tells Charlie Rose of PBS. “They tend to be habitual. They tend to like to have their points of view reinforced.”

And CNN?

“And a, quote-unquote, ‘progressive’ or ‘liberal’ network probably couldn’t reach the same sort of an audience, because liberals tend to like to sample a lot of opinions,” Mr. Klein continues. “They pride themselves on that. And you know, they don’t get too worked up about anything. And they’re pretty morally relativistic. And so, you know, they allow for a lot of that stuff. You know, Fox is very appealing to people who like to get worked up over things.”

Hollywood minds

We were curious about why Beth Solomon, associate director of the National Association of Manufacturers, was hosting a cocktail party at her M Street penthouse for Los Angeles visitor Mollie Gregory, author of “Women Who Run the Show: How a Brilliant and Creative New Generation of Women Stormed Hollywood.”

In fact, Miss Gregory revealed to Inside the Beltway that Miss Solomon, who recently moved from California back to Washington, is co-author with her of the upcoming title “Dirty Business,” true tales from a Hollywood talent agency.

Miss Gregory took time out from the party to print us a portion of the manuscript. Our favorite excerpt is this real-life exchange between a Hollywood agent and client:

“What are you talking about?

“Uday and Qusay.

“Did you know them? Did they go to Beverly Hills High?

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