All right! I’ve had it. CNN has finally totally blown it! Aaron Brown was the last best newsman they had. He is bright. He has a sense of humour. He has a sense of outrage when it’s appropriate. He is just the best.

CNN started out being called the ‘Chicken Noodle Network.’ No one took them seriously until a certain tinhorn dictator named Sadaam, who had more than enough oil, invaded the next country and tried to take their oil too.

We all watched the fits and starts of CNN. Remember the bureau chief in Tel Aviv? He was the one who, when the scud missile landed near the bureau said, “Yeah, it’s here at the corner of Golda Meir Boulevard and Moshe Dayan Way.” You could just hear the Iraqis:” Hey, Mahmood, crank that thing over about 5 degrees, we barely missed.

We can’t forget Bernie and the boys holed up in the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad watching the Patriot missiles pummel the city. It was edgy. It was risky. It was real. It was a hell of a lot more real than the little girl testifying before Congress a few weeks before. You’ll remember her, she was lying through her teeth about the “atrocities” she had supposedly seen committed by the Iraqis in Kuwait (She had never left the U.S., she was a diplomat’s daughter).

Anyway, after the Gulf war made the network, they were off to a running start. They had some units that were spectacular. The investigative reporting unit especially (CNN Presents) did some of the best work in journalism, electronic or print. The yin and the yang of that is that they stuck it in the Sunday night “spot of death” ensuring it’s ultimate demise if anyone but Turner were in charge.

I know that Uncle Ted Turner didn’t like unions, but he offered a great benefits package. However, he paid crappy wages and in the end lost a lot of good people because of it. That philosophy was self defeating.

Then, Uncle Ted joined forces with the dark side and bowed out of the everyday control of the CNN. That was the moment it went downhill. The only bright spot left, as far as I was concerned was when Aaron Brown came over from ABC. He was the face of September 11. He didn’t panic. His was a steady voice letting us know that we would go on.

His nightly news hour was such a welcomed relief. He doesn’t hype. He’s calm and reassuring. He’s funny. He’s bright. ‘Tomorrow’s Headlines Today’ was one of my favourite sequences. He also treated the roll of the war dead with the respect they deserve: it was certainly more than the administration gives them.

Now, they’ve gone with Anderson Cooper and they’ve given him 2 hours. I’ve nothing against Anderson Cooper, but he’s no Aaron Brown. I miss Aaron. I miss his continence. I miss his reassurance that we will somehow come through all of this insanity okay. Yesterday was Aaron’s birthday. Happy belated Birthday, Aaron. Miss you and hope we’ll see you soon.

Oh, and to you CNN – I’m no longer watching you at anytime. I’ve switched to MSNBC.

Today is Remembrance Day. On the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month the armistice was signed to end the war to end all wars. One day perhaps we can actually do that. Remember the dead and all those who served, and honour them.