Ed Morrissey

I've seen this bouncing around the punditsphere for a couple of days now! Given CNN's ratings, it certainly sounds possible! I keep coming back to one thing, though! I tend to score the credibility of reporting based on an inverse ratio of the exclamation marks used!

Anyway. Given the fiscal pressures at CNN and Warner/Discovery after its expensive merger, I don't find it surprising that they may want to cut down on talent salaries. However, that can be a pretty expensive undertaking, too; CNN just paid Don Lemon $2.5 million to go away, because contracts are contracts. And as poorly as CNN may be performing in the ratings, they won't improve by hiring cheap replacements.