Crossfire With Newt Gingrich And Stephanie Cutter?
As I noted earlier this month, new CNN head Jeff Zucker is reported to be thinking about bringing back the network’s left-right political debate show Crossfire. Today, Dylan Byers reports that the network seems to have potential hosts in mind:
Sources now tell POLITICO that the network is in discussions with former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and former Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter about roles on the show.
“They are talking to Cutter and to Gingrich,” a source familiar with the discussions said. “[Cutter] is in discussions; Newt is in discussions too,” another source confirmed.
Spokespeople with CNN did not respond to a request for comment regarding the news. Both Cutter and a Gingrich spokesperson did not respond to emails requesting confirmation.
Should the talks go through, it is unclear whether the former House Speaker and the former Obama campaign staffer would go head-to-head on a regular basis, or whether they would be part of a rotating cast of co-hosts.
Gingrich would definitely be a pugnacious ideological fighter, but I’m not sure people would tune in on a daily basis to see him say the things he’s been saying for 20 years now. As for Cutter, other than her appearances on television during the campaign I really can’t say I know much of anything about her.
Apparently CNN is planning to continue their marketting strategy of tricking Comedy Central into giving them free advertising by airing more clips of CNN employees saying stupid things.
Zucker is having a bad month, and making it worse.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Not at all. Gingrich is way too think-skinned for this sort of environment. He’s pure hothouse flower – he can’t handle anyone actually testing his academic credentials or calling him on his BS. Cutter I wouldn’t know if she fell on me.
I wonder how much ol’ Newt promised Zucker-boy to float THAT balloon?!!
CNN needed something to turn around their misfortunes, and from where I stand they absolutely nailed it.
By no means do I see this show tanking within the first 10 minutes.
The dick move par excellence. Anybody with half a brain knows there aren’t always two and only two points of view in every story. Even cartoon characters have more than one degree of freedom.
Would Cutter, who is currently a rather powerful player in the Democratic Party, co-host a show with a joke like Gingrich? I doubt that happens.
I think Newt and Santorum should co-host. They could continue to argue about which of them gets to be president of their imaginations.
@mantis: That might actually be fun to watch… And it would keep them both too busy to f*ck up the next campaign…
Cutler is a political operative. Her panels with Kevin Madden on the Sunday Shows during the campaign were good and friendly, but she is not supposed to have friends on the other side. Political campaigns are basically wars where you have to destroy the other side and political operatives are supposed to do anything necessary to achieve that goal.
The original Crossfire was good because Pat Buchanan and Tom Braden were friendly towards each other. The show would become a joke when politicians and political consultants would begin hosting the show. If CNN wants to resurrect the show that´s fine, but they should go after journalists or something like that, not politicians and political consultants. These are partisan hacks by trade.
Or perhaps those ‘sources’ telling Politico’s gossip columnist that Newt is in contention are … Newt.