CNN Hiring Bill Bennett to replace Novak?

Is CNN hiring Bill Bennett as its new conservative pundit in spite of his tendency to say hideous things, or because of it?

Media Matters reports that the network is bringing Bennett in to replace the unlamented Robert Novak, who left the air with a blast of profanity, a whiff of scandal and a fit of ill-temper.

The weblog TVNewser has reported that CNN has hired radio host and former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett as a political analyst. Specifically, in a December 30 post, TVNewser reported that "conservative talk show host Bill Bennett will become a CNN political analyst early in 2006." CNN's hiring of Bennett would come despite Bennett's controversial September 28, 2005, comment on his radio show, when he said that "it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime ... you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." CNN would not "confirm Bennett's new role at the cable news channel," according to a United Press International report.

K12 Inc., a company from which Bennett resigned in the wake of the controversy over his comment, is currently part of an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, which is looking into K12's involvement in a project that received an improper multimillion-dollar grant from the Department of Education during Bennett's tenure at the firm. Meanwhile, during some of his television appearances, Bennett has continued to comment on administration education policy and the No Child Left Behind Act without mentioning the grant, which was awarded while Bennett still was part of the company.

CNN's reported new hire has also repeatedly engaged in misinformation in his television appearances on Fox News, where he previously served as a contributor. He would replace outgoing conservative columnist Robert D. Novak, whose contract was not renewed by CNN. (Media Matters for America had urged CNN not to re-sign Novak.) Novak appeared on CNN only once after the network suspended him in early August for using vulgar language and storming off the set during the August 4, 2005, edition of Inside Politics. As Media Matters President and CEO David Brock noted when he urged CNN not to renew Novak's contract, the conservative's "credibility as a CNN contributor [was] severely compromised by [his] contradictory statements and accounts [of his role in the Valerie Plame case], as well as by his complete lack of candor on the issue of his involvement in the outing of Plame."

Media Matters says CNN is not confirming the story. But, if it is true it begs a question: why a smoldering hunk of damaged goods like Bill Bennett? Are there no sane conservatives who might like a sweet TV gig like the one Novak is vacating?

Clearly, CNN is interested in provoking its audience more than it is in informing them. Likely, they are hiring a bloviator like Bill Bennett in the desperate hope that the next time he says something shockingly offensive, he will be on their payroll and on their air.