Archive for the &;CBS-NEWS&; Category

CBS News Bloodbath: A ModestProposal

February 3, 2010

CBS News staffers are freaked out that at least 90 positions will be eliminated in the latest budget ax-fest, including shutting the Moscow bureau and reducing Tel Aviv to one producer.  They say it&;s not just fears about their own jobs; “One news executive said, ‘We were covering the news with one arm tied behind our back. Now we’re going to do it with two arms tied behind our back.’ ” Modest proposal:  They could put back 75 news people earning $150,000 plus $50,000 in benefits (sounds good to me at this point!) for the $15 million they pay Katie Couric for a year. Will it happen?  Naaaah. UPDATE: (8:15PM Eastern Time) Maybe it will happen.  Drudge says the CBS natives are revolting&;

Tags:CBS-NEWS, journalism-cutbacks, Katie-Couric Posted in CBS, CBS-NEWS, death-of-journalism | Leave a Comment &;

Old White Men Deliver NewsBest

May 14, 2007

The MSM keeps clucking about Katie Couric&;s (and that of CBS News) failure to win the evening news ratings race.  In fact, America&;s sweetheart is mired in third place. Linda Mason, CBS News senior VP of standards and special projects, said on CBS&; Public Eye site that the public &;seems to prefer the news from white guys, and now that Charlie&;s (Gibson&;s) doing so well, from older white guys. I guess they want the reassurance of a Walter Cronkite.&;  In February, I attended a lecture where Anderson Cooper of CNN interviewed Walter Cronkite, who, yes, is still alive and still pretty lucid.  While it is reassuring to have someone like Cronkite (who doesn&;t know who Paris Hilton is) deliver the news,  it&;s Cronkite&;s experience jumping out of planes in Normandy and Cooper&;s street reporting in New Orleans that give them gravitas and credibility, not their white hair and male chromosome set. Couric&;s brand of perky doesn&;t play.  I&;m not sure who the major networks are fighting over on the national news; I can&;t remember the last time I made &;an appointment&; to watch it.  Is it still on at 6:30PM?

Posted in Anderson-Cooper, CBS, CBS-NEWS, CNN, Journalism, Katie-Couric, Television, Walter-Cronkite | Leave a Comment &;