ADVICE ON SAVING CNN: “Here’s an idea: hire Mark Steyn and/or Hugh Hewitt to do a daily one-hour show, and watch your ratings soar. A network that had the wit to do some serious conservative news would peel off a lot of viewers from the unserious O’Reilly Factor.”

UPDATE: A reader emails:

Bill O’Reilly is, in his own self and program, proof of the very point.

He is very much a progressive who turned to the right, as it were, championed (somewhat) traditional values, and became a star. Unfortunately, his internal base was still progressive in the very style so evident in the Bammster, and thus, O’Reilly is running out of gas. He is neither conservative nor libertarian. His limitations are obvious.

Were CNN to put Steyn opposite O’Reilly, I would not only watch CNN, I would turn on the lobotomy box for something besides the Red Sox, sad as their fortunes are this year. I suspect CNN, were they to wean themselves off the Bammster’s nipple, knows that.

Were that to happen, I can only imagine how far “out there” Chris Matthews would feel. Tingle, anyone?

I doubt it will happen, which suggests that they support ideology over shareholder value.