Archive for the &;Walter-Cronkite&; Category

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 &;