Comments on: Star news

By: pam

pam — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:06:45 +0000

I have enjoyed Bob Schieffer’s tenure at CBS and will miss him. He brought us the news, mostly bad of late, in a gentle, graceful and dignified style. Why CBS would replace a Mercedes (Bob Schieffer) with a McDonald’s Happy Meal Toy Car (Katie Couric) is beyond me!! I will boycott CBS News from now
on!

By: KatieFan

KatieFan — Fri, 26 May 2006 23:15:45 +0000

According to both Katie and Meredith Vieira, change is important. Why not give change a chance. Katie had served “15 great years” in Today and that made her a strong TV personality. She also does news reading every first 30 minutes of the Morning program with co-host Matt so that made her an experienced one too. Let see what female news anchor can offer before we jump to a conclusion that Ms. Couric is a big mistake.

By: Fred Jones

Fred Jones — Thu, 04 May 2006 12:57:49 +0000

Please tell me how someone whose interviewing capabilities consist mainly and almost entirely of the words “I know that…”, “right…”, “I was just going to say that….” absolutely….” and more egotistical pourings out of similar ‘I want you all to know that I already know everything that everyone else is saying…’ can demand the money and air time that Katie Couric does from NBC ????
I think her move to CBS is the best thing in the long run that ever happened to NBC and not such a ’sad’?? loss that hype is being heaped on !!

By: Randy Moore

Randy Moore — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 19:01:25 +0000

Jeff is right; they need to shake up the TV news system all together. Instead of the CBS execs going out and finding who they deem the best choice for the anchor spot they should let their customers (by this I mean viewers) choose the next candidate.

I propose an “American Idol/Apprentice” style event where the people choose who they want to see. They could have Dan Rather, Andy Rooney and Jeff Jarvis as the judges.

By: RonP

RonP — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 22:40:06 +0000

i think Rather was getting set to go Howard Beale on us.

By: Omnibus Driver

Omnibus Driver — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 21:04:32 +0000

More human than Rather? Are you kidding? She’s the most Stepford of all possible anchors. Rather was at least natural. Katie’s 100% artificial. Ugh.

By: RonP

RonP — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 20:54:05 +0000

as a yank living in the UK I like the whole interactive thing. if i’m watching BBC or Sky I can hit the old red button to get more info - in the form of multiple choice news feeds. BBC Olympic coverage is much better than whoever is doing it in the US. personally i want facts and expert commentary and i want it when, well, when i want it. one of the main things that the MSM does not understand is the mutability of time. why does any network executive think that i will come and drink from the newspipe at the appointed hour? fat chance.

By: B. Minich, PI

B. Minich, PI — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 19:02:10 +0000

Personally, I stopped going for network news a while ago. When NBC did a podcast, I started for a while again, but then got distracted by the BBC and NPR. They both do an excellent 5 minute newscast at the top of the hour (which are podcasted almost immediately after they are done), and the BBC has several great programs dedicated to world news (including the podcast World News Select). The BBC World Service covers world news SO MUCH BETTER than any of the networks. Also, their NewsPod program, even though it is Brit-centric, runs circles around the network news. NPR covers the US news, and BBC does the rest.

Hiring a pretty face isn’t going to solve the problem for me - I want something that brings me a true sense of what is going on in the world, not just this country. How many people know that the Prime Minister of Thailand is stepping down after protests from the opposition? Or that his government, filled with unopposed elected members of his party because of the boycott, will stand election again in another year? I haven’t heard much about that on the network news sites. Until major events like that get mention, I will stick with my current media providers, thank you very much.

By: pashley

pashley — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 16:05:14 +0000

If things were hunky-dory over at TV newsland, it wouldn’t be a big deal, and, indeed, an honor.

Somehow, somewhere in the journalist world, they have to look around the declining ratings, the prevalence of entertainment over news, the liberal flatulance, and say, wow, that was a big iceberg.

Rearranging the deck chairs.

By: Jay Rosen

Jay Rosen — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 14:28:56 +0000

Good questions! Now, see with my one-click system that would all be automated. Like it is for you now, except… well, you don’t need a human brain, just a mouse.

By: CaptiousNut

CaptiousNut — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 14:14:34 +0000

Jay,

Is there a Big Media?

If so, is it foundering?

If foundering, why?

By: Jay Rosen

Jay Rosen — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 13:56:43 +0000

Oh, you could customize it to insert your preferred language and favorite automatisms. Sorry, should have mentioned that.

By: CaptiousNut

CaptiousNut — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 13:48:58 +0000

Only one person used the word “liberal” other than you.

Personally, I prefer more accurate terms like socialist, communist, and moron.

By: Jay Rosen

Jay Rosen — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 13:23:45 +0000

Jeff: Maybe you could ask your son and webmaster if he can hook up a little one-click system for liberal bias by Big Media (which is going to disappear because of it…) complaints. There’s no reason these folks should have to go through the rigamorole of typing the whole thing, and adding the little context-specific cues to make it appear like a response to something you wrote. Automate for the automatic thinkers! (We have the technology.)

By: CaptiousNut

CaptiousNut — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 13:00:54 +0000

Nice try Jay.

Anyway, Couric snaring this CBS contract is a wonderful thing. It’s wasting serious money, futher evidence that Big Media is quagmired in antiquated thinking, and will only serve to hasten its demise.

By: RonP

RonP — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 12:56:09 +0000

who cares? i mean really. the audience for network news is dead and dying - just check what type of advertising they get. the biggest laugh was Andy Rooney’s comments on this - apparently he’s not happy that the perky one is taking over the new desk. boo hoo ron burgundy. it’s the irrelevant commenting on the irrelevant.

By: Erebus

Erebus — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 10:26:35 +0000

Couric lost me when she ambushed presidential candidate Bob Dole over his connection to the tobacco industry, something she’d never do to Al Gore despite his being historically neck deep in same. Couric doesn’t even try to fake objectivity. It’s sad that people who actually respect her are considered mentally competent to vote.

By: kingdom2000

kingdom2000 — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 09:27:33 +0000

I don’t understand the fascination personally. She is a cute infotainment on air personality. To call her a “journalist” at this point is an inaccurate description. She is no more a journalist then I am. However, basically because of her “Q” rating she has been given a job that historically has gone to journalists, those that have proven themselves over and over again.

What bothers me is by getting this job and the 60 minutes position she gets this label of a “serious” journalist without anything to back it up. Asking softball questions to the celebrity du-jour is not exactly Peabody material after all. Anyone can write those questions after a cursury Wikipedia lookup (assuming Couric writes her own questions which I hightly doubt). Maybe I will proven wrong, but in this day and age of canned journalism, even a 60 minutes report doesn’t mean its her report and her work. More likely its what her producer, writers and researchers put together with her just following the script and instructions. This practice of the on air “delegating and guiding” the work always seems like consented plagerism to me.

Local news is already filled with just pretty tele-prompter readers with almost zero journalistic skill. I think this bit with Katie Couric will mark the same change in national news at the other stations decide they have to compete with their own “personalities.”

By: Marc Cooper

Marc Cooper — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 07:02:12 +0000

[...] More praise for Moonves and Katie here. And here. Here. And here. [...]

By: afsvfan

afsvfan — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 05:27:21 +0000

i get my all news from fark and the onion

why can’t US news grab people from BBC or CBC.
they know news.

By: Jay Rosen

Jay Rosen — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 03:38:02 +0000

I was taught (likely around age 10) that one can only embarass himself.

Yes, well you demonstrated that.

Maybe you and the rest of the socialists at NYU shouldnâ€™t have been so excited to listen to an obvious dimwit.

I wasn’t excited to listen to her; I was dreading it. I was there only because I had to be.

By: DanH

DanH — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 02:24:40 +0000

They should have hired Melissa Theuriau, except the FCC would ban her for being too smokin hot. And not speaking english might be problematic….. or not.

By: CaptiousNut

CaptiousNut — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 01:26:40 +0000

Jay Rosen,

Maybe you and the rest of the socialists at NYU shouldn’t have been so excited to listen to an obvious dimwit.

embarrassing the shit out of me as chair…

I was taught (likely around age 10) that one can only embarass himself.

By: Kat

Kat — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 01:04:25 +0000

{LATER: Judging from the comments, I clearly left out an important factor: People like Katie Couric. They really like her. } Yes, but then there are those who really do not like her–they REALLY dislike her.

By: Bob Morrison

Bob Morrison — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 23:40:33 +0000

Sorry to “report” that I wouldn’t know Couric is she passed me in the hall.I have pretty much been a CBS News watcher for years from Walter to Dan.
CBS ,in my opinon made a huge mistake in letting John Roberts get a way.He was good in the field and great “on air”.His age was right and the pre-mature grey hair added a bit of”I’ve been there” to him.
Let’s just hope Ms. Couric just “reads” the news and doesn’t get to be another Dan Rather,and choose the stories,ect.