Larry King: Last of Cable's Nice Guys

Without Larry King, CNN’s going to be a much nastier place. King was the last of cable news’ gentlemen, laments Tom Shales of the Washington Post. His show “got to be an increasingly lonely outpost of humane civility in a mephitic menagerie of hotheads, saber rattlers, cretins and crackpots.” So what if he specialized in “softball” questions. That’s what got him such great guests. Besides, “why should every host have to deliver hardballs over the plate at 100 mph?”

Now, CNN seems poised to hire Piers Morgan—“the poor man’s David Frost”—who’s sure to be as aggressive and mean as the Fox News or MSNBC host of your choice. Maybe this is a natural evolution. “Maybe Larry Kings cannot thrive or even survive in a world where the norms for discourse are rage, vehemence and character assassination.” (More Larry King stories.)