LOS ANGELES – Minutes before Jeff Zucker gave his first major news conference as president of CNN, his publicity team rolled a promotional video showing the news network's biggest personalities in heated exchanges with politicians and other public figures.
It could be tagged as confrontational TV. CNN's president has another term for it.
"What's been missing from CNN is a little bit of passion," Zucker said afterward. "That doesn't mean you have to be politically partisan, but you can bring the desire to stand up for everybody."
The notched-up tone is one of the most prominent changes since the former NBC chief took over a year ago. Leading the charge is the return of "Crossfire" and the hiring of a new morning co-host, Chris Cuomo, whose combative interviews with Sen. Ted Cruz and Dennis Rodman went viral.
Cuomo compares his network to a football referee, keeping both the left and right in check by challenging positions and policy.
"My job is to take your ideas and test it, to fight for the good ones that should be implemented and to shout down the bad ones," Cuomo said. "I believe that's my job. If you say that's advocacy journalism, I'm comfortable with that."
Of course, there's a thin line between aggressive journalism and shouting matches, the kind that often hijack highly rated shows on MSNBC and Fox News. No one understands that better than CNN's lead anchor, Anderson Cooper, who recently renewed his contract for four more years.
"Heat gets eyeballs, gets attention and winds up on blog posts," Cooper said. "But I think people want good, smart discussions. You can have passion without having phony outrage, which I think there's far too much of on other networks."
