During a retirement party for veteran CNN anchor Bernard Shaw, CNN co-founder Ted Turner, after spotting Catholic employees wearing the Ash Wednesday ash mark on their foreheads, reportedly asked, “What are you, a bunch of Jesus freaks? You ought to be working for Fox.”

Well, Mr. Turner, at the rate the news network you helped begin is going, they just might. Since the end of the November elections, CNN has seen its once dominate ratings share be nibbled by MSNBC, and devoured by the Fox News Channel.

Add into the equation the battle between interviewer Larry King and field reporter John King (no relation), the removal of CNN chief Rick Kaplan and the more than 1,000 laid-off CNN employees who are now collecting unemployment because of the AOL-Time Warner mega-merger, and the writing on the wall spells trouble.

So what happened? To countless people I’ve talked to, CNN is the source for news, how could it be wavering? Since January, Fox has been beating CNN on a nightly basis with audience-reach percentages, even though CNN is in twice the number of homes that Fox is in. So after 20 years, it seems the leader in cable news is now playing second banana to a 4-year-old upstart.

Many conservatives will tell you that CNN really stood for the Clinton News Network and was used as a political tool by Turner and ex-wife Jane Fonda for years. They claim the tide is shifting because the American public finally has seen the liberal agenda that CNN and the other networks are moving on.

This may be true. In the past couple of years, NBC’s “Nightly News,” ABC’s “World News Tonight” and the CBS “Evening News” all have seen sliding ratings. But can a “left-wing” or “right-wing” agenda really be proven in any of them?

Probably not, say most media watch-dog groups such as the conservative Media Research Center and the liberal Fairness and Accuracy in Media.

But the two are quick to point out noted media bias in the major networks. Some that are commonly noted are Dan Rather’s open pro-Gore stance driving Election 2000 and Bryant Gumbel’s “I-thought-I-was-off-the-air” verbal assault on a Family Research Council member.

Something that also should be noted is the “no-bad news-about-the-parent-companies” policies at General Electric’s NBC and Disney’s ABC, or Fox’s continuous Reagan coverage when the Gipper broke his hip in January.

So how did CNN get started in this downward spiral? The other founder of CNN, Reese Schonfeld, stated that in the news game, the one that delivers the story best wins the ratings and keeps the viewers.

The last major news story was Election 2000 and CNN failed that big time while MSNBC and Fox picked up the ball and ran with it. Shows on MSNBC like “Hardball” with Chris Matthews, “The News” with Brian Williams and a new program with election darlings Ashleigh Banfield and Lester Holt all have seen boosts in their ratings.

While Fox, since the election, has been an all-you-can-eat ratings buffet with its prime-time news lineup of “The O’Reilly Factor” with Bill O’Reilly; “Hannity and Colmes,” a debate show with New York City radio talk show hosts Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes; and “The Edge” with Paula Zahn.

So what can CNN do to get back in the game? According to Schonfeld, the formula is a rather simple one: Report the news in a fair and balanced manner (which ironically is Fox’s motto) and be the first to break the news. Some things are starting to move in that direction for the slumbering news giant. New shows are giving a more balanced and objective view for CNN.

But then again, I’m watching MSNBC and Fox, like I care.