Dennis Miller’s CNBC Show Favors Jokes Over ‘News’
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – Dennis Miller insists he is a comedian and not a journalist, and his CNBC show debuting Monday night will be “entertainment,” rather than “a font of pristine journalistic ethics.”
CNBC won’t care what Miller does as long as his eponymous 9 p.m. show brings the network a modicum of visibility in primetime, where its audience has fallen off the radar screen. The cable network’s long-term plan is to follow Miller with John McEnroe — probably in about three months — after an 8 p.m. newscast.
Like any talk show host who wants to be popular, Miller is prepared to be controversial. One part Libertarian, one part defense hawk, he told reporters in a teleconference Friday: “I don’t have the vaguest pretension to journalistic ethics, I’m a comedian. If I can ask a smart question or show an insight into somebody, that’s secondary.”
He gave some indication of the rants and feistiness to come when he criticized ABC News anchor Peter Jennings for his subtle views while noting that “at least they’ll know where I stand.”
“Peter Jennings, over the course of the next year, will tell me in a million ways that he’s liberal,” Miller said. “There will be a million poker tells.
“He has more of a European look, and he’s a very bright man. I don’t have anything against Peter Jennings, but … when the polls were going back and forth in Florida during that (2000) election, I could almost tell what he was thinking,” Miller said. “You could see the thought bubbles; he was happier when (Al) Gore was ahead.”
Miller indicated that he leans toward NBC News’ Tom Brokaw in terms of balance.
“Brokaw is the most measured, partly because I work for NBC and partly because he is,” he said. “The ratings convey the fact that he’s even-handed.”
Referring as well to CBS News’ Dan Rather, Miller said, “I think they just come from a time where they think of conservatives as old squares, and they don’t to be aligned with them.”
Miller said his show will include his trademark mock newscast and stay heavily focused on politics during election season.
Another reason to believe Miller is taking a less-than-traditional tact to cable talk is the monkey.
“When David Garroway had a monkey on the ‘Today’ show, it made me laugh just because it was so random. You tell me if it’s a slow news day and someone is doing an interview that you can care less about, about the gross national product, and you see a monkey ambling throughout the perimeter of the scene, tell me that won’t make you sit up and notice,” he said.
Miller gave a hint of the barbs he’s preparing in the interview portions of his show. Responding to a question on the controversial Patriot Act, which many liberals and conservatives have attacked, Miller went into his familiar rant mode.
“All I know is when (reporters Bob) Woodward and (Carl) Bernstein wanted to see what (Watergate conspirator) Howard Hunt’s library records were, it was viewed as a seminal moment in political journalism. When we want to find out if Ramsey El-Kaboom is taking out a bomb cookbook, it’s thought to be Orwellian. I don’t understand that discrepancy,” he said.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be Miller’s first guest Monday, followed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
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