CNN Really Is the Paris Hilton Network (Maybe)

Dan Abrams says CNN is "the Paris Hilton network."

But of course he'd say that. After all, Abrams works at MSNBC. Even though it's made some headway of late, particularly in the 8 p.m. hour, MSNBC still runs a fairly distant No. 3 in the cable news ratings war. So to get in a pissing match with No. 2 CNN can only be a plus.

And it's not like MSNBC has exactly demurred from covering Paris. In fact, a Nexis search shows that the hotel heiress has been mentioned some 145 times on Countdown, Tucker and other MSNBC shows over the past six months. Abrams himself has mentioned Paris on his own show (or on Scarborough Country, when he was guest-hosting it) 22 times during that period.

But hang on: Nexis shows an astonishing 457 citations for "Paris Hilton" on CNN in the same timeframe -- more than three times as many as on MSNBC. (Fox News comes in at 350.) Could Abrams be onto something? Or is there some discrepancy between how Nexis tracks the two networks? I emailed CNN for clarification. Stay tuned.

Photo of MSNBC's Dan Abrams: Erik Jacobs/The New York Times