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CNN courts younger viewers
NEW YORK — Is CNN Headline News down with it?
The cable network is trying, judging from an effort emanating from its executive suite to think young.
CNN Headline News general manager Rolando Santos told the San Francisco Chronicle this week that he’s looking to mix “the lingo of our people” — words like “whack” and “ill” — into newscasts to attract young people.
And the New York Daily News on Wednesday quoted from an e-mail sent by a network manager to his headline writers, sending them a copy of a slang dictionary so they can be “as cutting edge” as possible.
“Please use this guide to help all you homeys and honeys add a new flava to your tickers and dekkos,” the message said, referring to graphics on the Headline News screen. The list of phrases included “fly,” meaning sexually attractive.
