Katie Couric CBS Eveing News first day 9/5/2006 (1 Viewer)

[TonyD]

ok then.
but no not odd.
just something to talk about.

you might be surprised how often that happens to a topic. the sabotaging thing.

 

[dany]

Highly watched? By who? Nightly news is watched by what, a few. By the time its on,anything important has beed aired a few time over. Really, most anyone can do what she is doing. They hope to get some of her fans from her morning show.

 

[teapot2001]

I think around 25 million people still watch all the three major evening news combined. That's still a lot.

I watch Brian Williams but I tuned into CBS last night to see how Couric was doing. I instantly noticed how awful she looked.

~T

 

[Marianne]

We also watch Brian Williams and tuned in to CBS to check out Katie (for about 5 mins).

It's unfortunate that what a woman looks like will always be discussed more than a man doing the same job (ie Brian Williams).

That said, I thought she looked terrible. I suppose they were trying to make her look older and more serious to give her 'gravitas'.

 

[TonyD]

well the first show was highly watched.
had the highest rating for that show since 1998 i think.

i did say on a major networks highly watched news program. (specific)

 

[dany]

I belive in the mid 80's it was 68% watched and now its less then 25. Thats a dropoff.

 

[Ken Chui]

I thought I was the only one. Is Bob Schieffer still the anchor/moderator on Face The Nation?

 

[Citizen87645]

I agree, BUT I have to say most of the comments relate to her apparently getting cosmetic work done; I think if it didn't seem to be so the comments would be mostly about the show content.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Which was shallow and entertainment focused.

Did anyone watch the "5 Years" thing at 10 last night? I broke out laughing when they had the reporter first in the whole Muslim headdress for her Taliban sequence, then with a cutesy WWI/WII style helmet while embedded with the troops. I didn't realize the evening news was supposed to be a costume drama. Couric also managed to get literally nothing new out of the president.

 

[chuck_b]

Thank God, yes. He will be missed on the nightly news and was the best thing about the CBS news lately. He was what is needed - a calm, experienced voice who also was not afraid to show his feelings after a story. He liked to end the broadcast with upbeat stories and after sad ones, I swear he looked like the viewer felt. Bobn also did noty look like he was reading when following upo wiuth a field reporter segment and actually looked interested in the story enough to probe. He will be missed each night but will continue each Sunday for his half hour show.

 

[ThomasC]

A female anchor isn't a problem with me - I liked Elizabeth Vargas while she was on World News Tonight because she played it straight. Katie acts too cute.

 

[Jack Briggs]

So, here we all are and most of the discussion centers on how the woman looks. I think Marianne's comments are apropo here. Can we kindly move beyond the woman's appearance and discuss the show itself?



Back when network news really meant something (the Watergate era), the major networks often had commentary spots. Howard K. Smith and Frank Reynolds did commentary on ABC, John Chancellor would do commentary on NBC, and Eric Severeid did excellent commentary on CBS's evening news. It was common.

Based on the reviews I have read, however, it appears that this new packaging of CBS's evening news program was more about Couric than anything else, and fluff was more obvious. I would have liked to have seen the Spurlock commentary, however.

As it is, I'll check it out some time fairly soon -- it conflicts with a presentation of BBC World News that I like to watch, which precedes my all-time-favorite evening news presentation, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer.

 

[Mary_P]

Well, I know we're not supposed to get political on this forum, but I don't see a way of talking about Katie Couric without talking a little politics. Sorry to anyone if this crosses the line, and I'll trust the admins to remove it if you think it does.

My problem with Katie Couric was the infusion of opinion pieces into news stories. If something's an OpEd, it should be presented as such, not passed off as "news." I haven't seen her since I stopped watching "The Today Show" in November 2000 because of its blatantly biased coverage of the contested election. Every "news" story about it was filled with loaded language; the show wasn't even pretending to be fair to both candidates. Whether that was her fault or that of whoever was writing her copy then, I have no idea. But she put a face to some of the worst yellow journalism it's ever been my misfortune to see. I hope she doesn't do the same at CBS.

 

[LarryDavenport]

I haven't seen Katie's perfomance because I don't get home until 6 and I have been recording reruns of the Gillmore Girls.

I believe Katie can do a good job, as I believed that theri have been women in the past who could have been the sole newscaster. Linda Elerbee, Diane Sawyer. Jane Pauley, Judy Woodruff, and Jessica Savitch would all have been good.

Growing up in Seattle, Jeanne Enersen has been the senior anchor KING-TV5 for more than 30 years (former co-anchors of hers include Aaron Brown and Lou Dobbs) so I am perfectly comfortable getting my news from a chick.

 

[Patrick_S]

It’s too bad you just can’t seem to find a way to discuss a news program without dragging it into politics. No one else seems to have that problem.

I’ve watched the Today Show for decades including the time period you referenced. I certainly didn’t notice the egregious behavior you described. From what you have written it appears that your perspective is being colored by your own political biases.

 

[Greg_S_H]

You're right on the money, Mary.

 

[Nick Martin]

Funny, considering I was the first to say that it was shallow to discuss such matters, and then the thread starter accused me of trying to 'sabotage' the thread for saying that...

 

[Sam Favate]

FWIW, I agree. This seems to be a trend that comes from cable news, specifically Fox, MSNBC and CNN.

 

[Marty M]

I agree with your assessment with this. I have never noticed anything Mary has described.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

So far she's doing OK, but it's still the standard network newscast, which is slowly dying. With the Internet & cable news, there's no real need for these newscasts any more.