"The Paris Hilton of television news"

[pab]

Posted: 1/30/07 at 10:21am

"Who needs Rosie and Trump when CNN and Fox News Channel are duking it out in a Steel Cage match?

Latest volley in the verbal jihad between the cable rivals is an FNC ad in trade journal Television Week blasting CNN golden boy Anderson Cooper as "the Paris Hilton of television news."

Responded CNN president Jonathan Klein, "It's a sign of desperation to resort to infantile name calling."

The magazine hit the stands yesterday. Cooper is not seen or named in the two-page spread, but he's the target.

A silver-haired man with his back to readers stands to the left (get it?) of such wet-kiss phrases as "style over substance," "endless hype" and "media darling."

At the bottom of the page: "And he still gets beat every night by" - jump to opposite page - a large photo of FNC's Greta Van Susteren, whose On the Record runs against Cooper's 360 at 10 p.m. weekdays."

Gail Shister | Anderson Cooper, Paris Hilton: See the resemblance?