Cold Water

The ABC News-CNN combination appears dead, at least for the moment. Yesterday, The New York Times had a breathless report about how a deal would almost certainly be struck (and soon). Today, CNN President Walter Isaacson pours buckets of freezing cold water over the NYT story, saying that "no serious meetings" regarding the merger have been held for months.

It is argued by some that Isaacson and ABC News President David Westin aren't invited to the ABC-CNN meetings and therefore have no idea what is going on. Maybe. But the more likely truth of the matter is that combining CNN and ABC News is a tough deal to get done. The most likely outcome of CNN and ABC trying to create a new entity (call it ABCNN) is failure.