A CLOSER WALK WITH

Singing 20 of Her
Greatest Hits

MICHAEL ELKIN

Special to The Jewish News

s one of the giants in the
news business, Rick Kaplan,
, all 6 feet-plus of him, is used
to tall orders.
But tall statements?
When meeting his new boss at
CNN, the news producer reportedly
was greeted with :"You're the biggest
God-damned Jew I've ever seen."
Ted Turner turns a phrase, doesn't
he? "That's not exactly what Ted said,"
says Kaplan, president CNN/USA, of
the network's main man, whose vain-
glorious attitude was reported in
Vanity Fair. "But it's close enough.
Let's just say we had a good time."
No doubt Kaplan enjoys what he's
doing. The man who brought the
nation "Nightline" has
been in the line of the
business he loves —
news — for a num-
ber of years.
Since making
headlines by head-
ing over to CNN
recently, Kaplan is
making headway
in creating a new
national news ser-
vice.
It's been as
easy as ABC:
He has hired
former ABC
correspondents
Jeff Greenfield
and Judd Rose
as well as
Willow Bay to
bolster the
already booming
staff the cable
network enjoys.
The news exec
known for his temper
and talent is in a good mood
these days as he watches ratings bump
upward. Major events — the death of
Diana, Princess of Wales, a presiden-
tial scandal — mean more work and
more viewers.
Indeed, the 1991 Persian Gulf War
was the mother of all events — rat-
ings-wise — for the network.
"I think there is a strong core audi-
ence for hard news programming [that]
is not at all as interested as some people
think [in] the softer stuff," he says.
Are the Big Three — ABC, NBC,
CBS — going soft in the belly trying
to outmuscle each other for the rat-
ings? Says Kaplan, "I think that the

A

mistake a network could make is to fit
their programs to fit some demo-
graphic need that sales tell them
about."
Kaplan is sold on CNN's new
"Newsstand," which ties the network
into a number of Time Inc. maga-
zines. (Time/Warner is the parent
company of CNN.)
This spring, the network's
"Newsstand" will introduce pro-
grams in cooperation with
Fortune/ Money, Entertainment Weekly
and Time itself.
Time will tell if they succeed. But
just as news changes all the time, so
does CNN: "We have reorganized our
production teams. We have worked
hard to get rid of repeats or at least
minimize them so that in no adjacent
hours will you see the same story
twice, which is a big change for those
who have been CNN watchers in the
past.
"The introduction of the 'CNN
Special Reports' unit is very important
to what our plans are."
No one doubts Kaplan's competi-
tive nature; but it must be hard to
beat up on oneself. "Our competition
is ourselves," says Kaplan.
King of all their programs is "The
Larry King Show," which garners the
network's highest ratings. Yet, even by
King's own admission, the celebrity
broadcaster has known journalists, has
worked with journalists but is no jour-
nalist.
"It's a mix of hard news and soft
news and entertainment news" that
serves a news viewer well, says Kaplan
of King's show.
But has network news served its
viewers well, specifically when it
comes to coverage of Israel?
"I'm not as familiar with the other
networks' coverage as I am with
ABC's," says Kaplan; who also was
involved in the network's "Prime Time
Live" and "World News Tonight," and
I can tell you there is no network bias
against Israel.
"We're journalists and all the infor-
mation, what we cover, is out there in
the open."
In fact, Kaplan points with pride to
the fact that his news network has
opened up its Middle East coverage.
"Clearly we have beefed it up," he says
of the burgeoning bureau in that
region.
And; he says, all the news that's fit to
print — make that broadcast --- is. ❑

Michael Elkin is entertainment editor

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