Katie Couric Ends the National News as We Know It
One of Bill Clinton's biggest achievements in office was the 1996 reform of the welfare system. It was a rare bipartisan achievement and he was proud to say he had "ended welfare as we know it."
Based on evidence so far, Katie Couric will soon be able to boast that she has "ended professional network news coverage as we know it."
According to the Drudge Report, she is going to give such reactionary oddballs as Rush Limbaugh a national forum to spout and spread his loudmouth lunacy. "It was Katie's idea," chirped an anonymous CBS sycophant. With about 18-22 minutes to show the news of the whole world, part of those precious few minutes are going to such well-known heavyweight political thinkers as Bill Maher, the comedian.
This waste of time will be initially be known as a "guest editorial." My guess is it will eventually be called something more "Todayish," like "Katie's Friends." I can hear Matt Lauer expounding on the hottest Hollywood celebrity on that segment of the show someday. Entertainment as news has fully arrived at the home Edward R. Murrow, Fred Friendly, William Paley and Dan Rather, of all places.
If you don't get enough entertainment from your CBS news there is a new website called Couric & Co. Today's post was supposedly by Katie herself. She refers to the billion dollar CBS media conglomerate as "the little village that is CBS News." No reference to any little Shia or Sunni villages in the Iraq civil war whose population is being wiped off the face of the map today by sectarian violence.
Her ghost goes on to write that Katie just wants the site to be viewed as "the coffee house on the corner where something is always brewing." She probably means the Starbucks in the mall, which is the audience she is after. Do you think her little coffee house will include chit-chat about how many marines died in Iraq today?
If you think there is a gender gap in politics, you haven't seen anything like the gender gap that this kind of "Oprah-ized" news coverage will create. News presented with the goal of having everyone like you, from Limbaugh to Maher, is not news. Men will head for the hills and another network.
Will I tune in tonight? Sure. I'm as curious as the next person. Will I ever tune in again? Not likely, unless the newscast is much different from the way they are promoting it.
Based on evidence so far, Katie Couric will soon be able to boast that she has "ended professional network news coverage as we know it."
According to the Drudge Report, she is going to give such reactionary oddballs as Rush Limbaugh a national forum to spout and spread his loudmouth lunacy. "It was Katie's idea," chirped an anonymous CBS sycophant. With about 18-22 minutes to show the news of the whole world, part of those precious few minutes are going to such well-known heavyweight political thinkers as Bill Maher, the comedian.
This waste of time will be initially be known as a "guest editorial." My guess is it will eventually be called something more "Todayish," like "Katie's Friends." I can hear Matt Lauer expounding on the hottest Hollywood celebrity on that segment of the show someday. Entertainment as news has fully arrived at the home Edward R. Murrow, Fred Friendly, William Paley and Dan Rather, of all places.
If you don't get enough entertainment from your CBS news there is a new website called Couric & Co. Today's post was supposedly by Katie herself. She refers to the billion dollar CBS media conglomerate as "the little village that is CBS News." No reference to any little Shia or Sunni villages in the Iraq civil war whose population is being wiped off the face of the map today by sectarian violence.
Her ghost goes on to write that Katie just wants the site to be viewed as "the coffee house on the corner where something is always brewing." She probably means the Starbucks in the mall, which is the audience she is after. Do you think her little coffee house will include chit-chat about how many marines died in Iraq today?
If you think there is a gender gap in politics, you haven't seen anything like the gender gap that this kind of "Oprah-ized" news coverage will create. News presented with the goal of having everyone like you, from Limbaugh to Maher, is not news. Men will head for the hills and another network.
Will I tune in tonight? Sure. I'm as curious as the next person. Will I ever tune in again? Not likely, unless the newscast is much different from the way they are promoting it.
posted by Marshall Darts at
11:01 AM
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