Time Warner apparently wants CNN to get stupider.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2012/08/cnn-reality-shows-talk-shows-makeover

Guessing that CNN is preparing for what looks to be economic austerity in the USA circa 2013 (regardless of who wins the White House), by lots of cheap chattering opinion shows plus greater doses of fake-reality series.

Ted Turner decries "fluff" on CNN.

Just read an account of a gee-I-wish-I-were-running-things-now interview with Ted Turner (I believe it was on Bloomberg News) where, among other things, he displayed discontent with the "fluff" on Cable News Network and expressed a wish for more "news" on the channel.

To be absolutely cynical, I don't foresee CNN (along with sister station HLN) decreasing their focus on who-said-that/who-went-too-far.

After all, when corporations run for-profit news channels, there's a ginormous list of news stories that news directors know not to devote their increasingly-less-vast resources to.