NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - CNN, having a hard time thwarting rival Fox, is struggling to come up with a winning formula and show that it isn't out of step with American viewers.

The news network is getting criticized in the media for falling behind the hard-charging Fox network, focusing on happy news and pandering to young viewers.

In what is being described as an exodus of proven talent, at least six veteran correspondents are leaving CNN. The network is playing down the severity of the departures. Walter Isaacson, chairman and chief executive of CNN News Group, told reporters that this was "actually a very small turnover." Finally, he shrugged off the critics by saying: "This is not some youth movement."

Not everyone believes him.

"They're changing the network," said Allan Dodds Frank, a CNN veteran correspondent whose contract wasn't renewed. "Take a look at what's on."

Frank may have a point. On Thursday morning, for instance, CNN cut away from covering a tragic story about the death of a child in Newark, N.J., to show an interview with Dick Clark, the ageless impresario behind the American Music Awards.

The contrast of the two stories wasn't lost on Clark, who went so far as to label the music awards program as "frivolous" compared with the heart-breaking, serious news from New Jersey.

Serious news

"They don't want serious reporting," Frank said earlier this week.

Once, Frank's claim would have seemed unfathomable. Remember how much respect CNN commanded during the Gulf War?

During the tense time in early 1991, Americans flocked to CNN for the news and admired its dogged reporting. more

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2003