On Way Out the Door, At Least Campbell Brown is Honest

Rather than wait for CNN to drop the ax on her and her 8 p.m. broadcast, Campbell Brown fell on her sword Tuesday. The news show host announced she'd be leaving the network because, in her words, "not enough people want to watch my program, and I owe it to myself and to CNN to get out of the way so that CNN can try something else." No bias, no bull, indeed!

She's not wrong, either: Her show pulled in 353,000 viewers on Monday, compared to Bill O'Reilly's year-to-date average of 3.3 million, Keith Olbermann's 1 million, and even Nancy Grace's 724,000. Can't she try something more like them? That, too, would be a "no": "Shedding my own journalistic skin to try to inhabit the kind of persona that might co-exist in that line up is simply impossible for me," she wrote in a statement. "It is not who I am or who I want to be; nor is it who CNN asked me to be at any point. This is the right decision for me and I hope it will be a great opportunity for CNN."

OK. Well, you tried, and we all appreciate it. Anyway, Campbell, chin up! Opportunities abound! I mean, half the staff of 60 Minutes is bound to croak any day now.

· Campbell Brown to Leave CNN [NYT]