Is CNN cooking up ‘Politics’ lite?

When CNN’s Judy Woodruff recently traveled to the kitchen of Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) to watch as she prepared her signature crab cakes for a new cooking segment on “Inside Politics,” some disillusioned CNN insiders feared the worst.

For months, rumors have swirled that “Inside Politics,” CNN’s serious afternoon program beloved by Washington insiders, was in trouble. CNN executives and their bosses at Turner Broadcasting, so the rumor goes, have been pushing to make it less inside, more appealing to the average viewer. Even highly respected host Woodruff’s job was said to be in jeopardy. The debut of the “Capitol Cooks” segment only reinforced the worriers’ concern that it was the beginning of the end for serious political news at the network.

In fact, top CNN executives say they knew nothing of the cooking segment, which is going to appear as an occasional feature, and Woodruff herself owns up to the idea. “It’s just one more way to get inside the heads of these mysterious politicians that we cover day in and day out,” she says. “We sit them down, stand them up, ask them serious questions, and we don’t know very much about what makes them tick.”

But the alarmist reaction to a minor change is a clear sign of the turmoil under the surface at CNN. Staffers are adjusting to their third leader in just 18 months: longtime executive Jim Walton, who replaces CNN News Group Chairman Walter Isaacson, who quit for a think-tank job.

Even before the latest change, CNN had been locked in an internal corporate culture battle, with those who think serious news should be the mandate bemoaning executives who are dressing up the packaging with bold graphics, italicized headlines, fluffier features and younger, less-experienced reporters, the better to compete with dominant Fox News Channel.

Isaacson and other CNN executives proudly point to decisions they made in the last year to continue to pursue a news strategy, rejecting the successful Fox New Channel model of opinionated talk. But when Walton made that point at his first meeting with the New York bureau two weeks ago, a producer stood up and loudly complained that “Connie Chung Tonight,” a showpiece of CNN’s evening lineup since July, isn’t serious journalism. Many in the room burst into applause.

Even last week’s hopeful sign that CNN’s early shuttle disaster coverage was tops among cable news networks was overshadowed by stories about the absence of lead anchor Aaron Brown and second-guessing about what that meant for the direction the network plans to take in the future.

It’s not surprising that “Inside Politics” should become the focus of angst. It’s one of only two shows -- the other being “Larry King Live” -- that are largely single topic and haven’t come in for a major makeover in the last two years of intense change at CNN. (Eighteen months ago, however, Woodruff did go through a phase when she frequently anchored the show from a roof overlooking Washington, a strategy that height-phobic guests hated but CNN executives thought would give the program an energy boost.)

The show is second in its time period, behind Fox’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” and its overall viewership drops off by 10% from the hour before, the free-for-all “TalkBack Live,” which has a studio audience and bickering talk radio hosts as guests. In January, “Inside Politics” fared slightly better, however, among viewers 25 to 54, showing a modest gain from its lead-in.

The program -- which is broadcast locally at 1 p.m. -- is unique on television, a daily briefing on the minutiae of Washington, from who might run for office to what’s happening on Capitol Hill. Its reports from seasoned journalists, including Candy Crowley and Jeff Greenfield, are closely watched by lawmakers, lobbyists and Washington’s media corps, with an influence that far outstrips its audience.

Charles Todd, editor of the Hotline, a daily political briefing service, calls “Inside Politics” “appointment TV here in Washington.” As the only show of its kind, he says, “It still can play a very influential role. When 4 p.m. [ET] comes around, it’s where my TV’s tuned; it’s where every reporter’s TV is tuned.” He adds: “You know you’re cool when you’re called ‘IP.’ ”

Teya Ryan, CNN/U.S. president, says it is “a lie” that the network has considered replacing Woodruff. Insiders who say the show is under pressure to lighten up “haven’t a clue what they are talking about,” she says. She won’t comment on any possible changes, however, calling that information a private internal matter. More broadly, she said, “I talk about all kinds of things we might do with our shows. It’s a natural development, how we grow them, change them for the times we live in.”

Asked about insiders’ fears that packaging is beating substance, Ryan says simply to watch CNN. “That’s your answer. But do we want to grow and change and develop new things? Yes, always. I am always going to be making small changes here and there. It’s a sign of a good businessperson.”

She is adamant that Woodruff, who signed a new contract last year, “has a home at CNN as long as she wants to be here. She is one of the top broadcast journalists in the country. I want her at this network,” she says, noting that she asked Woodruff to help anchor the shuttle disaster coverage.

Woodruff says the show has been searching “for some time for ways to make politics relevant in a way that’s not silly. When you’re in an election year, everybody’s interested, it’s the heat of the moment. But in times when you’re not running up to an election, not everybody is as fascinated by it as I am.... I know there are a few people out there who don’t live on every syllable as we do, so we try everything we can do responsibly to bring politics to life.”

With Mikulski, she says, she also talked about “Iraq, Bush’s tax cut, religion and health care. We did more in that interview than make Maryland crab cakes.” The next cooking segment, she says, is in the works.