Los Angeles -- Former CNN host Larry King has a great deal of
affection for the cable network he called home for 25 years, but acknowledges
its middle-of-the-road approach in a politicized TV news era is a "difficult
problem" to solve.
"The problem they face in this vituperative media society is
on the left they have MSNBC, on the right they have Fox, and so what do they do
trying to be in the middle?" King said at the TCA press tour here Tuesday. "If
I were put in charge of programming at CNN, I don't know what I'd do."
King, who said he watches CNN and MSNBC regularly and a bit
of Fox News in addition to reading five to six newspapers daily, praised CNN
primetime hosts Erin Burnett, Anderson Cooper and his replacement Piers Morgan.
"It's certainly very comfortable viewing," he said. "But in
today's era of what's going on in this volatile media approach when you turn on
Fox or MSNBC... it's very hard to be in the middle. I think it's a difficult
problem."
Asked whether or not TV news is better off today than when
he first started his career in
broadcasting more than 50 years ago, King said he wasn't so sure.
"What we have now is more information readily available, but
are we better served with 500 outlets? A lot of what now is get it on rather
than get it right," he said. "The Murrows are few and far between."
King was at TCA to promote his new Ora.TV talk show Larry
King Now, which is streaming on Hulu. He said he is again "doing what I love to
do best" with the launch of the new show, and while he doesn't consider himself
a technophile, he enjoys working with a new media platform.
"It's amazing all the things available to me. It makes me
feel young again," he said.
While King says the setting of his new show, which shot the
first few episodes in the trophy room of his Beverly Hills home (it will move
to a studio in Glendale), is more comfortable than his old CNN set, the booking
process for guests hasn't changed much.
Early guests have included actress Betty White,
writer/producer Seth MacFarlane and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani,
and King says "we haven't had any turn-downs [from potential guests] because it's
the Internet."
