No Democratic Debate For Katie Couric And CBS News

I was hoping that Katie Couric would get a Democratic primary debate on CBS so all the major anchors would have an equal opportunity to pose questions and enlighten the nation during the process of this primary season.

CBS’ hopes for a primary debate, have been officially dashed. The North Carolina Democratic party announced they are canceling plans for Sunday’s debate because they could not get a commitment from Sen. Barack Obama. The face-off was to be moderated by Katie Couric and Bob Schieffer with a plum spot after 60 Minutes.

Technorati Tags: HillaryClinton, BarackObama, CBS, KatieCouric, DemocraticDebates

CNN’s Anderson Cooper To Be Traded For CBS’s Katie Couric?

If America can have our first black American president, why can’t we also have our first gay anchor during an evening news broadcast at a major TV network? 

The savvy and much admired Anderson Cooper from CNN is rumored to become the face of CBS News.  Cooper has proved his journalistic credentials over the years at CNN, and will bring a new and rejuvenating energy with him to CBS. 

Katie Couric never had the needed ‘heft’ and creditably for the job as anchor.  She will do much better in an interview format, which she has proved to be highly skilled.

I can only hope these rumors prove to be true.  And soon.

Technorati Tags: KatieCouric, AndersonCooper, CBS, Gay, CNN, Media, Journalism

 

Katie Couric Might Leave CBS Anchor Role In Weeks

Having never thought that Katie Couric was a good fit as the anchor for the CBS Evening News, I was not surprised to read the news today of a possible decision soon to replace her as anchor.  This comes just days after it was announced that finally she would get her own chance to moderate a presidential debate on CBS April 27th from North Carolina.  I had wondered when she would get a chance to do what every other anchor had done this campaign season.

The news today about her possible exit as anchor comes after awful ratings for the once proud CBS news division.  To be fair to Couric, the anchor role  was not the best way to showcase her better skills as an interviewer.  But I still think the return of the anchor chair to a more solid type of reporter is a great idea for CBS.

As The New York Times reports today there is plenty of speculation about her future.

However, rumors from CBS News and reported in the news media may have, inadvertently or not, done what the meeting failed to do: ensured Ms. Couric’s early departure.

Though some people close to Ms. Couric, as well as some professional associates, said Thursday they believed that it was now likely she would not remain as anchor through the election, and might even leave in the next few weeks, that point was adamantly denied by the senior executives closest to the decision.

“Katie is absolutely going to continue as anchor until the inauguration and very possibly beyond that,” one said.

The executives involved in the situation said that no discussions of Ms. Couric’s future had taken place since the February meeting. Yet the news that she and CBS were even considering an end to the first effort to have a woman as the primary anchor of a network news division surfaced in press reports in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere on Thursday, creating a situation that appeared to leave Ms. Couric vulnerable.

“She’s not a definite lame duck,” a senior executive who has been close to the situation said. “Nothing is decided.”

Technorati Tags: KatieCouric, CBS, Media, NewYorkTimes, Journalism,

 

 

Take Heart Bob Schieffer Fans!

This is great news.  After my words here about the decision by Bob Schieffer to basically retire early next year, there is reason to smile.

Read and smile here.

Technorati Tags: BobSchieffer, FaceTheNation, CBS, Media, Journalism

After 20 Presidential Debates Where Is Katie Couric?

This has been a question that has bounced around recently, but I had not heard or read any real coverage of this matter until tonight.  The story provides another reason why CBS News has slipped from the days of Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather, and why news junkies head to the all-news cable networks.

Eight months and more than 20 debates into podium season, Ms. Couric has yet to get anywhere near the big stage.

How did the highest-paid anchor on evening television get upstaged by Brian Williams, Brit Hume, Charles Gibson, Wolf Blitzer, Tim Russert, George Stephanopoulos, Campbell Brown, Chris Wallace, Natalie Morales and on and on?

The official explanation from CBS: Ms. Couric was the victim of circumstance.

Technorati Tags: KatieCouric, CBSNews, PresidentialDebates, Election08, WalterCronkite, DanRather

Bob Schieffer And My Coffee Mug

It may sound strange but every Saturday night for well over a decade I make sure that my ‘Sunday coffee mug’ is clean and ready for a hot beverage come the next morning.  The mug is the official “Face The Nation” one that can be seen on the famed CBS show, placed in front of those being interviewed by Bob Schieffer.  A great friend sent the mug to me while he visited New York, and the use of it every Sunday morning is now just a long running tradition.  The mug is really symbolic for the deep respect I have for the man who anchors the Sunday broadcast.

Bob Schieffer is one of those rock solid reporters that I have turned to in times of national upheaval for an honest dose of news.  During election season he demonstrates a long running love of the political process.  He is gifted with political analysis that makes the younger faces around him seen so….well…average.  He has a keen sense for blending his professional journalistic skills with a dose of humanity, and a touch of humor, to make his time on-air well worth my time.  It has been that way for decades.   He never has let me down.

But starting in January with a new President sitting in the Oval Office Bob Schieffer will not be on the air.  He announced his retirement from the Sunday morning broadcast this week.

I felt the time Bob Schieffer was the anchor of the CBS Evening News was the best for that program since Walter Cronkite left the air.  The fact that Schieffer knows how to write and craft his story to hit the facts, while drawing the audience in for more, is not easy.  But after all the years that he has devoted to his profession it comes with ease.  The fact it does look effortless on his part is just more proof of his television skills.

His grace on the air is also a well-known trait, one that has earned him respect from all quarters.  He is a man with a job to do, but proves time and again that being a gentleman does not mean he can also not be successful, or get to the bottom of the latest headlines.

Come January I will still watch “Face The Nation”, but I wonder if the coffee in the old mug will taste the same.

Technorati Tags: BobSchieffer, CBS, WalterCronkite, FaceTheNation

CBS Morning News From August 1973

The following link is really only for those who have a fondness for either a time in the past when the world was thought to be safer and more serene, or for those who wish to see what the newscasters of yesterday once looked like.  The hour footage on this link is the CBS Morning News from August 1973.  Take note of the amount of time given to topics such as the farming segement on kids from Mexico working in American fields.  Things have changed with morning TV.  TV in general.

As a boy getting ready for school I would watch snippets of Hughes Rudd as he updated the country on the happenings of the world.    For whatever reason I liked his dry presentation in the mornings.

This “CBS Morning News” program from August 1973 has it all: Sally Quinn soldiers on through a fever for her morning news debut; Hughes Rudd cracks wise about political rhetoric; the Watergate hearings are underway (Lesley Stahl reports from Capitol Hill); Phil Niekro throws his first no-hitter and a White House speechwriter named Buchanan defends President Nixon.

The hour seems serene now since we know how all those news stories turned out.  And to think we still understood the news of the day back in ‘73 without the computer generated graphics that are a part of every broadcasts today.  Hmmmm.

In addition there are some ads from 1973 too.  The CBS promo for the shows on TV that year is a hoot. Lucy, Ted Baxter, and Cher.  Long time ago.

In all an hour worth seeing again.

Technorati Tags: CBSMorningNews, HughesRudd, August1973, Watergate

Katie Couric “C-” For Opening Night

And I am grading on a curve.

This evening I sat outside of a coffee shop on State Street in Madison, Wisconsin enjoying a most remarkable summer night.  The weather was perfect!  I was reading one of my news-magazines that came in the mail today.  On the first two pages there was a brief run down of the world events over the past week.  After watching the CBS Evening News just an hour before I realized that many of the stories contained in The Economist will not make it on Couric’s news show.

I had hopes that there might be some attempt under Couric to provide world news.  But it seems that if American soldiers are not at peril, or America is not warring or threatening another nation, international news is of no consequence.  Couric did lead off with Afghanistan which featured a female reporter and allowed more time than usual for the story to be told.  But after that, there appeared to be no other international news taking place today.  (In reality Calderon was announced to be the new leader of our neighbor, Mexico.  The United Nations had strong words for the Sudanese government over the Darfur crisis, and British politicians are talking like crazy over when Prime Minister Blair is set to sail from 10 Downing Street)

Couric did not have time for those stories because Tom Cruise spawned a child and I supposedly wanted to see photos.  Whatever that “photo’ part of the newscast is all about I predict it will soon be jettisoned.  It was like a Led Zeppelin song during Sunday morning services.  I have already posted my thoughts on having a commentator segment during the news and while I applaud that move I do think there has to be some requirement for “gravitas” and not open it up for just every person with a wedgie. 

While I love Thomas Friedman and found his thoughts right on target I do not think a 30-minute program of this type is best used for an interview.  There are programs which accommodate interviews but after eight minutes of commercials that leaves 22 minutes for news during the nightly broadcasts.  Not enough time for interviews….and Tom Cruise’s spawn.  JUST GIVE ME THE NEWS!

Finally, am I the only one who thinks that Couric, being the first woman solo anchor might have put her “sex appeal” away and favored her professionalism and journalistic integrity?  If she showed her legs any more or crossed them any more seductively she could compete with naughty college girls on web-cams.  Her producer needs to tell her to sit in her chair, behind her desk, and DO THE NEWS.  FROM THE WHOLE WORLD!

But who knows, maybe if she can pull the ratings off and makes this a success Bill Hemmer can start to do his how with his shirt off.  Problem is we would need to watch Fox News…..err…I mean FAUX News.