"...there's a growing feeling within CBS that Katie Couric is an expensive, unfixable mistake."

[DeepModem Mom]

Posted on Sun, Apr. 22, 2007
Gail Shister | CBS evening blues
Katie Couric hasn't redeemed the No. 3 newscast. Can she survive as anchor?
By Gail Shister
Inquirer Columnist

CBS executives deny it, but there's a growing feeling within the network that Katie Couric is an expensive, unfixable mistake.
So unfixable that Couric - the first woman to anchor a network nightly newscast solo - may leave CBS Evening News, probably after the 2008 presidential elections, to assume another role at the network, CBS sources say.

Despite her A-list celebrity, her $15 million salary, and a promotional blitz worthy of a Super Bowl, the former star of NBC's Today has failed to move the Nielsen needle on No. 3 Evening News since her debut seven months ago.

In a bottom-line business like television, that's a cardinal sin. Already-low morale in the news division is dropping, says a veteran correspondent there.

"It's a disaster. Everybody knows it's not working. CBS may not cut her loose, but I guarantee you, somebody's thinking about it. We're all hunkered down, waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Seven correspondents, producers and executives at CBS and other networks interviewed for this story spoke on condition of anonymity, given the sensitive nature of the Couric situation....

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/gail_shister/20070422_Gail_Shister___CBS_evening_blues.html

[MadBadger]

1. She was a mistake

She trails Brian Williams and Charlie Gibson by I believe more than 1.5 million viewers. So she is being paid big money to continually finish in last place.

[liberaldemocrat7]

17. I watch NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.

I haven't watched Katie Couric more than once.

Why do I presently only watch NBC Nightly News? Because Brian Williams once worked in the Carter White House as an intern.

I don't expect him to toe any Democratic line but at least seeing that he worked in the Carter White House he won't fall off to the right.

Other than NBC Nightly News, Iwatch CSPAN where at least I have a chance to actually call in and speak to America uncensored.

Can you do that on Larry King or on the News programs. No way.

[Maeve]

48. I went to NBC, too

I tried to like Katie, but the news seemed too ...fluffy. And I would not watch Limbo get a voice (like he's not already loud enough!) on a proper news show early on in her tenure. I'd given up on ABC, so NBC was my only evening news choice. I've come to appreciate it.

[Lance_Boyle]

85. 'seeing that he worked in the Carter White House he won't fall off to the right.'

Yeah. Kinda like Snuffleuppagus?

[hfojvt]

93. interesting. I swear that I just read about him in the Howler

couldn't find a recent message, but sometimes I go back to the incomparable archives too. A search revealed this:

"OUR EMPTIEST SUIT: Did we note that a fight for the soul of the press corps is on? With that in mind, try to believe the following transcript, from Tuesday night’s News with Brian Williams. During Campaign 2000, Williams was one of the press corps’ most mindless Gore-bashers—author of some of the most vacuous commentary ever seen on American TV."

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh112102.shtml

"Brian Williams played a key role in pimping this bullshit on cable. But then, Williams’ Gore-trashing conduct in the fall of 1999 was really a sight to behold. At this distance, we’ll at last take a guess—MSNBC’s boy-toys were working hard to make Jack Welch happy. (There are reasons why we’ve finally been drawn to such musings—but this remains speculation.) But whatever the explanation might be, Williams persistently turned day-into-night in his presentations on Gore. He baldly misstated poll results and offered absurd accounts of pundits’ published opinions. We’ll offer you the links below. Unless Williams is the world’s dumbest man, he was simply lying in the faces of MSNBC’s viewers."

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh122006.shtml

[frogcycle]

95. she got better ratings with the camera up her ass

:rofl:

[saltpoint]

2. Maybe she could run the World Bank. I heard there was a position coming

open there pretty soon.

[MADem]

3. Now THAT was funny! A plus!!! And a gold star!! NT

[pepperbear]

11. yeah, but look who's d**k you gotta s**k.....

[saltpoint]

12. What a photo. You'd think the president of a World Bank could afford

some dental work.

[LibertyLover]

34. We have a good dental plan here at the Bank Group, so it's

not like he can blame his teeth on lack of insurance.

[bdamomma]

38. he can't afford socks either!!!

[JHB]

83. Or hair gel/spray

n/t

[sarge43]

23. War Czar

It's possible she could make that horror show an even bigger FUBAR.

[Cha]

71. "FUBAR"! That's such a

apt description of what the bushits are doing to our country.

[Sapphocrat]

4. If only...

...Mr. Couric had pulled out, CBS wouldn't have to.

(Oh, I am just in one of those moods tonight.)

[murielm99]

5. Everyone here predicted this.

All my friends knew this would happen.

If the man on the street knew that Katie would bomb, what the hell is wrong with their experts?

[liberalla]

18. EXACTLY!!!

WHO is surprised by this news??? Sheesh...

Her news reading is SO offensive to me. The idea that CBS thinks this is the person America wants to get their news from is insulting. Entertainment maybe, news NEVER.

Apart from everything else, it drives me crazy when they 'soften' or diffuse her image. They use a filter to film her - something gauzy, or maybe vaseline on the lens. When a news program is more concerned about preserving the illusion of a young cheerleader rather than working on serious, sharp, professional news content and delivery, you know everything else is phonied up too.

She should have a TALK show, not a news show!

Dear CBS,
Katie being a flop does not mean that a woman is incapable of anchoring an evening news show. It means you guys are lousy at discerning news talent. You thought if she had a new desk, and if we could see her legs once in a while, we would tune in to get our news from Katie? Couric was a poor choice, and everybody else knew it. Why didn't you?

Maybe Moonves had a crush on Katie...

[Cha]

74. Maybe moonves is getting his

Karmic Bitch of a Payback for not standing by Dan Rather and dropping on his knees for the bushit empire?

[Bridget Burke]

29. Apparently most DU'ers were smarter than the highly paid CBS executives.

Where's OUR money?

[Cha]

78. We were smarter than

all the idiots who thought it was a good idea to bomb Iraq, too.

[WinkyDink]

70. Because the "experts" knew the real deal, also, but totally thought WE would be IMPRESSED.

Same brains behind every failed TV show.

[MADem]

6. Jesus, what a frigging hit piece, eh? And from her "friends" at CBS, too!!!

Of course, THEY deserve the blame as much as anyone. All they had to do was look on these here "internets" when they were NEGOTIATING with Katie to get a sense of how that crap was gonna fly (like a turd brick, it turns out--as predicted!). Everyone said the same thing--more WALTER CRONKITE-ish, LESS PERKY. It wasn't a gender issue, it was a GRAVITAS issue. A Carol Simpson would have done fine in the role. A Gwen Ifill. ANYONE who can read the news, edit their copy to suit their own style, and do it without farting around on nonessentials, and who understands that tough times call for tough news presentations.

Who's taking book on her Sayonara date???

[Hekate]

8. You're right about gravitas, and that Gwen Ifill has it. She's great.

Poor Katie. I'm not a morning person myself, so I never caught her at that early hour, but her reputation for being perky was legendary. I've tuned in a few times to her evening gig, and perky she's not. Her entire aspect is dull, and as far as I can tell her voice is pitched much too low for her vocal chords. I don't wish her ill, but this isn't working out too well.

Gwen Ifill, on the other hand, has wit and sparkle in addition to the aforementioned gravitas. Mr. H is not-so-secretly in love with her!

Hekate

[liberalla]

20. I think the lower voice is intentional, in the hopes that she

would sound more serious (like a real news person), but it just doesn't work.

[quiet.american]

44. You know, you're right -- I think Gwen Ifill would be very successful as an evening anchor. n/t

[frogcycle]

65. Gwen would be fantastic

Watch her periodically on NPR - she was on a panel discussion after teh i-mess and REALLY came across as a thoughtful, intelligent JOURNALIST. Particularly describing her own history with the creep, she showed emotion and yet still preserved a sense of journalistic detachment. I'd love to see her move up. Of course the national anchor spots have been so diminished, it might NOT be a move up!

[Cha]

82. couric's rep for being a corporate-

mediawhore is gaining legendary status, also.

[frogcycle]

50. if they wanted a woman

they should have gotten Carol Marin

She was an anchor in Chicago for years; did a stint at a network, didn't work out, is now on the local PBS outlet in Chicago.

A professional journalist.

[MADem]

56. She isn't 'national' though. Carol Simpson (who anchored the weekend news at ABC for years) is a

known face, even if some may not realize they know her by her name alone. And she's old enough to appeal to the CBS demographic, while at the same time "hip" enough to appeal to the younger viewers. She's definitely a no-nonsense type. Gwen Ifill has massive name AND face recognition, and a warm and calming presence. That's why they came to mind first.

I think they were looking for some aspect of "KNOWN" at a nationwide level, otherwise, they would have either promoted from within the CBS family of affiliates, or gone after local talent from other major market affiliates, or embarked upon a publicized talent search.

[frogcycle]

64. they were looking for "star quality" and "cute" - period n/t

[MADem]

87. They were looking for audience share, and they stupidly thought Katie had a "fan base"

When she didn't. It was the TODAY format that had a fan base, which is why it survives changes in portly weathermen (they must be a bit portly, even if they don't have to be massive anymore) and a boy-girl team with light banter and a bit of false jealousy thrown in here and there as a "bit."

A Barbra is as good as a Jane is as good as a short-lived Deborah is as good as a Katie is as good as a Meredith...

[MadBadger]

66. I would have gone with Diane Sawyer

[Hardrada]

7. This ranks up there with Baba Wawa on ABC news

with an uncomfortable Harry Reasoner (RIP, fellow Iowan Harry).

[BuyingThyme]

9. I saw her "show" for the first time today.

Now I understand what everybody's been talking about.

[JHB]

88. Arm Yourselves

[SoCalDem]

10. Dear CBS: Put in a "noboby", have them read the NEWS

can the "commentary"..and use the extra money to hire investigative reporters.

problem solved

[liberalla]

21. That's a good idea. Really!

[lildreamer316]

75. How much you wanna bet the ratings would take a spike?

It could take a bit;but you never know.

[krkaufman]

101. Exactly. Actually report and speak truth to power ...

... and the audience will come.

[GreenTea]

13. I'm so sick of Couric's republican kiss-ass shit!

Her boyfriend a huge Bush supporter obviously having an influence on her.

[MadBadger]

14. Its not even that

Its just that she sucks at giving the news. And she softens it up. I felt like I was watching the Today Show.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

16. I'm not going to lay it at a boyfriends feet

She's an adult, she can make choices on her own, even bad ones. She may have just not been qualified for the position, if that's the case she's not the first person to aspire to something they weren't capable of fulfilling. Or, she may have felt she couldn't fulfill the position and yet was lured by the massive amount of money, and as such was/is willing to do anything those who hired her say. Or, the people who hired her may have filled her head with how she was "perfect" for the new face of CBS Nightly News, that they saw as being a Today Show style nightly news program. Which the American public don't find to be as satisfying in a nightly news slot. Or it could be something else or a combination of these things.

Whatever the reason, I think she, and those who hired her are the ones to blame, not the current man she's in a relationship with.

[Berry Cool]

24. Actually, she's got a new boyfriend

not the one who used to be engaged to Laura Ingraham. He's 17 years younger.

[Richard Steele]

15. "And that's the way my teleprompter tells me it is."

Hey, CBS™ Execs: "Duh"

Just fucking DUH. How hard did she SUCK you before you
actually lost enough blood-flow to your greedy, robber-baron
brains to imagine she could be the ANCHOR for the frickin
CBS Evening News?

[SpiralHawk]

19. D'oh - She's just another republicon corporate propagandist

Free clue for CBS: Try a real journalist, maybe even an impartial one.

America is sick of paid-off corporate hacks spouting republicon talking points.

[Cha]

91. I don't think the corporatewhores

at cbs are ready to have a real journalist yet, it would destroy their collective corporate fascade they've so lovingly built up with lies & deceit, all these years, in league with karl rover(the creator of gw bush).

[liberalla]

22. Go VOTE in their poll question on Couric !!!

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/gail_shister/20070422_Gail_Shister___CBS_evening_blues.html

Posted on Mon, Apr. 23, 2007
READER POLL

Was hiring Katie Couric to host the CBS Evening News a mistake?

Yes (86.6%), she was a particularly bad fit (86.6%)= 11376
No (13.4%), any morning show-type host would struggle (13.4%)= 1766


Total votes= 13,142

[mnhtnbb]

92. They got what they deserved.

[WiseButAngrySara]

107. Guess it's still up. 85.4% Couric was a mistake.

Yes, she was a particularly bad fit (85.4%)= 12538 No, any morning show-type host would struggle (14.6%)= 2136 Total votes= 14674

[htuttle]

25. Katie Couric is the 'New Coke' of anchorpersons

[LiberalEsto]

26. She should replace Imus

She's not an ideal choice by any means, but far better than the jerk who's subbing now.

[Ian David]

27. Is this from the latest issue of "Duh!" Magazine? n/t

[Ian David]

28. Here's my solution

1) Re-hire Dan Rather and give him his old show back.

2) Give KKKatie Couric a daily show in which she and a public figure are both interviewed while getting colonoscopies. We could call it, "Are You Full of Shit."

[onecent]

96. LOL...Thanks for the laugh...

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

30. Why unfixable? They fixed the Imus mistake. Different problem, but fixable.

[lpbk2713]

31. Gee guys, what was your first indication?

.... the fact that she's a total airhead maybe?

:rofl:

[a kennedy]

32. No kidding CBS.......

:eyes: :puke:

[TNOE]

33. Serves them right

THIS is what they get for firing Dan Rather. I wonder now if they are thinking maybe that wasn't such a good idea! Too bad.

[pink-o]

35. The very first broadcast...

...when she debuted her "free speech" segment and had Limpballs as her guest pretty much told me all I needed to know.

But I sat shiva for her after the Edwards' interview, when she did her Faux Noise "some say" bullshit on Elizabeth over her cancer. This from a woman who never missed a minute of work after her own husband had been diagnosed with colon cancer.

What a little hypocrite. But it goes to show that sometimes bad shit does happen to deserving people.

[gratuitous]

49. She was going to get back to us on Abramoff, too

Her little segment on the Today show just before she left when she repeated the baseless charge that Abramoff had been an equal opportunity corrupter of the system, bribing both Republicans and Democrats. When her guest challenged her on that, she fum-ferred around and said she'd check on that and get back to us, her adoring audience.

Still waiting, Ms. Couric. The 11th indictment of a political figure involved with Abramoff has come down, and darn the luck, but all 11 so far have been Republicans. When are the Democrats going to start getting indicted, tried, and sent off to jail?

[MADem]

89. The "Free Speech" segment where they tried to tell Bill Maher what he COULDN'T talk about? NT

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

36. Never watch it, never will... n/t

[Arkham House]

37. There is no such thing as "television news"...

...except for C-Span. The rest is *all* bullshit, entertainment, and hype, all of it. I don't mean documentaries, I mean "news"...and it always has been. Nothing in the world matters less than who the networks "anchorpeople" are, and if they just dropped the damned "newscasts", the health of the republic would be affected not a whit.

[robcon]

39. She has had one positive effect for CBS.

The NBC morning show, Today, took a hit in ratings when she left. I don't know if that actually translated to better ratings for CBS in the morning, though.

[JHB]

40. What's so "unfixable" about this?

Does not the Holy Writ of the Free Market state that it is infinitely self-correcting and "fixable"?

Are not "overpaid" and "overvalued" employees routinely let go with ruthless dispatch, to the cheers of stock analysts and shareholders?

There must be some newsreader school in Mumbai, just waiting to accept the outsourcing of her position (after all, the studio for the newsreader can be anywhere, right?).

Why, pray tell, it this any different?

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[undeterred]

41. So is the president, so she shouldn't feel too bad. She can't be impeached.

[Roland99]

42. Well ... *DUH* !!!!!

morans

[Marie26]

43. Bring back Bob Scheiffer!

I'm considering starting an advocacy group for this important cause.

[Dinger]

72. No, Steal Dan From HD Net. Firing Him Was Where This Mess Got Started

No way their ratings would stink then.

[Marie26]

94. Well, they kind of did.

That's why CBS stooped to these sort of stunts. They've consistently been in third place for years. Dan Rather is a good journalist though, and it would poetic justice for CBS to have bring back Rather now after dumping him like that.

[paparush]

45. Kate and Bush** should take that act on the road...

[coffeenap]

46. Hey, CBS--how about an actual news program? You know, with

facts. A simple set, reporters giving reports, and information being read to us. No musical interludes, no crescendo at the bloodiest point in the video, no crap at all. How about a revolution--NEWS?????????

Or, you could go liberal! Give us Keith Olbermann, or Sam Seder, or Amy Goodman. (Well, I can dream...)

[w4rma]

47. They picked her because they wanted a propagandist. Not someone who actually cares about informing

people about the news.

[smoogatz]

52. They picked her because her morning info-tain-o-ganda show

got good ratings. They thought, wrongly, that whatever was working for her on "Today" might translate to the evening news format, which is unquestionably incredibly stale. It was a gamble, and it failed.

[w4rma]

54. It got good ratings and it was light on information. (nt)

Exactly the type of "news" that big media wants to provide.

[smoogatz]

51. They should hire Bill Moyers.

You know, an actual journalist. Failing that, they should hire this woman:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FoQLOCU6KBg

Suddenly, millions of Americans sign up for French classes...

[krkaufman]

102. Oh my god, what a dream. Bill Moyers doing the CBS Evening News...

... with content control.

[krkaufman]

103. Oh my god, what a dream. Bill Moyers doing the CBS Evening News...

... with content control.

[lpbk2713]

53. One thing speaks volumes about the CBS disastrous choice for their evening news anchor ....

Bob Schieffer was supposed to be nothing more than a temporary replacement for Rather until a permanent replacement was found. The hilarious and obvious predicament for CBS is that Couric has yet to match Schieffer's ratings. :rofl:

[Beausoir]

55. Maybe Couric should bring back Rush Limbaugh to her program.

Offer him a permanent slot during her newscast to spout his vomit.

That might help her ratings.

[Kansas Wyatt]

57. Serves them right for what they did to Dan Rather.

[michaelwb]

58. Hey CBS

CBS you should hire me as your anchor. I can give you the same last place ratings for only a fraction of the cost of Katie.

;-)

[BlooInBloo]

59. No shit, dumbasses.

[MissMarple]

60. They wanted a light weight, biddable, little dolly,and have the shallow infotainment they wanted.

They are all shallow, profit fixated, partisan twits. I wish we had the fairness doctrine and telecommunications act back, the networks don't, and that is why they support BushCo.

[bmbmd]

61. The mistake

was in dumping Dan Rather. They lost all credibility with that move.

[libnnc]

62. They could have asked Linda Ellerbee.

If they wanted a woman--if that's all they were looking for.

But they didn't ask a real journalist and bestselling author, did they?

Dickweeds.

[lildreamer316]

76. Oh I love her.

She just comes across wonderfully.

[Warren DeMontague]

81. I know she had breast cancer; is she fully in remission?

I'm assuming from your post she's still alive-

I always thought she was great.

[libnnc]

86. She does news for Nickleodeon

[Cass]

63. The CBS geniuses didn't see THIS freight train barreling down the track??

They chose the wrong woman to anchor the news. They needed gravitas and chose perky instead. HUge mistake and we all knew it before it happened.

[Cha]

68. "The cbs geniuses" Fired

Dan Rather! They're just gettin' dumber.

[charlie]

79. The same geniuses

put Connie Chung in the anchor seat. Obviously, they didn't learn the first thing from that disaster.

[Cha]

67. Ha Ha.

Maybe if she hadn't have been a corporatebushsuckingsychophant she might have made the 1st woman anchor a sucessful postion for herself.

She could have made herself a niche like Keith Olbermann but I guess it wasn't in her DNA to search for the truth.

[WinkyDink]

69. Because she's completely without credibility as a NEWSperson.

[lildreamer316]

73. ..as Dan Rather is surely repressing an "I told you so".

I know he's classier than that; but it must be a temptation.

[MADem]

90. Naaah, he's a gutsy guy in his SEVENTIES on HD Network--not afraid of a camera, and not afraid of

looking like a real human with wrinkles!

[KansDem]

77. What did they expect? WHAT did they ****ing expect???

She's a goddamn media bimbo! Did they really expect her to hold the chair once held Edward R. Murrow or Walter Cronkite? What did she have prior to her hiring that would convince network news execs that she was worth $15,000,000?

I hate it when these kinds of stupid decisions are made. The inevitable happens: their golden goose crashes and burns, then the suits all stand around trying to figure out "what happened." Morons with 8-digit salaries.

[Warren DeMontague]

80. Expensive, unfixable mistake- just like the Iraq War.

And again, I hate to say I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO.

[MadBadger]

84. Delete

[cgrindley]

97. Lara Logan should be anchor

Best reporter they have. A real reporter. She should be anchor. Young and smart. Not some has been boomer.

[liberalla]

98. I thought of her too. My initial thought is they wouldn't want

a non-citizen as the national anchor. They would want an 'American'. It wouldn't bother me, but that was the thought I had. Peter Jennings was Canadian, and became a U.S. Citizen. I wonder if Lara Logan has changed her citizenship.

[gauguin57]

99. They should have moved John Roberts to weeknight anchor. Instead, he's being silly at CNN.

He had gravitas as weekend anchor at CBS. Now, on CNN, he acts just like the rest of the giggling mob. Sad. He could have been a good anchor for CBS.

[lpbk2713]

104. I agree.

I also agree with Linda Ellerbe as mentioned above. But alas, she's not young and she's not blonde so it goes without saying the CBS brass won't even give her a second look.

[krkaufman]

100. Here's a thought. How 'bout some real frickin' journalism ... ?

Staff the news division and deliver investigative journalism and real reporting, rather than more tabloid infotainment and press release repetition. Go figure; the American public would like to actually get some news from their evening news program. (It's not like The Daily Show isn't showing them how to wield public figures' past comments and actions as clubs.)

p.s. CBS execs sound like Bush declaring his support for Rumsfeld prior to the 2006 mid-terms...

Couric "is the current anchor and the anchor of the future," McManus says. "Everyone at the network, from my boss on down, is 100 percent behind her."

"Katie is the anchor until she decides to ride off into the sunset and do something else," says Kaplan, named e.p. March 8. "There is no one, no one, wringing their hands around here."

[Fozzledick]

105. A modest suggestion for her replacement: Rosie O'Donnell

I'd prefer real news from a real journalist, but that's obviously more than CBS can handle.

[leftyladyfrommo]

106. Wouldn't that be fun! n/t