CNN Head Resigns Over Ratings

CNN president Jim Walton resigned today and he was quite frank about the reason.

"There's always pressure," he said. "I've been doing this a long time and CNN has had its ups and downs, like all companies have had ups and downs. I feel really strongly about a number of parts of this company. We're having a really strong year internationally and in mobile. It's clear there's a lot of spotlight on CNN's U.S. performance and it's reasonable that there is that spotlight." CNN's U.S. network had its worst-ever ratings for a second quarter, down 40 percent for some of its prime-time shows. The decline was particularly notable in May, when CNN faced tough competition from broadcast networks during a slow news period and its ratings were compared to a year earlier, in the aftermath of the Osama bin Laden killing.

Walton's departure is being celebrated across the wingnut-o-sphere. Breitbart blogger John Nolte cheers: "Pardon me while I stand to applaud and holler 'Good riddance!'" Below are the cable news viewership figures for Wednesday of this week. As you can see, Fox News is scoring more than triple the audience of CNN.