Murrow to Moonves: "Kudos for Katie!"
Every Monday afternoon I face a crisis. How do I inspire the graduate reporting class I teach at USC to soldier on in the foggy field of modern journalism?
It's not always easy having to explain how Jayson Blair got enabled, how Judith Miller got empowered, how Dan Rather and company got it all so wrong. But not this coming Monday. No sir.
My hat off and big appreciative hug to Les Moonves, that singular visionary and defender of modern journalism, who has made the courageous selection of Katie Couric to anchor the CBS Evening News. This should dispel any lingering cynicism about the integrity of the news division over at Murrow's old network. Ed must be cheering loudly from his grave.
More impressive, Moonves has granted cutie Katie the role of Managing Editor, meaning she's not gonna be just some bleached-out bubble-head consigned to merely reading the TelePrompTer. Nope, our sweetheart Katie's also going to determine just exactly which news will or will not fit into the nightly cast.
Who better suited for this awesome role? You'll remember that Katie has a stunning record as a relentless and fearless reporter. Putting out her own student "newspaper" in elementary school, she was one of the first journos to cover the JFK assassination. As a cub reporter for CBS she became a ferocious correspondent covering the sinking Nixon White House. During the 1980's Katie became the first woman reporter to cover the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. She won wide recognition for her fearless and enterprising work when she once disguised herself as Dan Rather disguising himself as an Afghani tribesman.
Returning home, she dug right into the Iran-Contra scandal and didn't flinch from directly confronting V.P. George H.W. Bush on his possible role in that fiasco. Couric's journalistic bravery led to her now widely-recognized and admired reporting stints in the Balkans -- standing on the rooftops of Sarajevo and under Serbian artillery fire transmitting her live reports back home to a mesmerized audience.
The rest, of course, is history. Katie Couric -- and for that matter Les Moonves-- can now take their rightful place as shining icons in this glorious period of American journalism.
We love you, Katie!
More praise for Moonves and Katie here. And here. Here. And here.
P.S. An informal poll of CBS News bureau chiefs found broad consenus that Katie's estimated $15 million yearly salary was a "good deal" for the network. Though that sum is roughly equivalent to adding approximately 50 foreign and national correspondents, the poll (conducted by CBS management) found no signs of dissent. "It's a bargain for the network," said one overseas bureau chief who insisted, pleaded and demanded he remain anonymous."You know, Moonves is a real genius."Â
April 6th, 2006 at 3:59 am
And they say baseball players are overpaid.
Seriously, who watches the evening news anymore? My non-scientific polling tells me it is an audience made up mostly of retirees returning home from the early-bird special at Fred’s Bland Food buffet. They love Katie because she epitomizes the daughter, or daughter-in-law, they always wished they had.
April 6th, 2006 at 4:07 am
Ha Ha great one Marc…as goes Katie, so goes the quality of the MSM news coverage. Another very sad day for journalism in the US.
One wonders however if this really does reflect how little people CARE about content and objectivity in what they view.
Makes me even more convinced Im doing the right thing by sticking with the Lehrer Newshour.
April 6th, 2006 at 4:16 am
“My non-scientific polling tells me it is an audience made up mostly of retirees returning home from the early-bird special at Fred’s Bland Food buffet.”
If this is correct, then the demographic analysis behind that 15 million salary must be way off.
April 6th, 2006 at 5:57 am
Well, Michael, that is the demographic with a relatively large disposable income and plenty of time to watch Katie and the included commercials?
Maybe I should define non-scientific: a poll of friends, family, coworkers.
April 6th, 2006 at 6:29 am
Marc, this was hilarious–my first laugh of the morning. But then, after the laughter, the aftertaste of nausea. From the Yahoo article you linked:
“The woman who dressed in Marilyn Monroe and SpongeBob SquarePants outfits on Halloween and gave viewers a tour of her colon will take the position once held by the iconic Walter Cronkite and the ousted Dan Rather.”
Jesus H. Christ. Her freaking colon? This is a dadaist prank, right?
April 6th, 2006 at 6:43 am
I come not to bury Katie Couric or to praise her, but it’s time for a little calm.
First, the tour of her colon was part of an effort to promote awareness of colon cancer, which killed her husband.
I don’t question that Ms. Couric does not have the experience that Cronkite or Rather brought to the table, or many others for that matter. But I do not detect that her counterparts at NBC and ABC won a punch of Polk and Peabody Awards. If I am wrong about this, please correct me.
I have little interest in this, other than thinking that Ms. Couric was pleasant as host of Today–where Tom Brokaw came from before doing NBC Nightly News. But what I have detected in the past day of discussion–not from Marc, whom I know well enough that he did not succumb to this–is sexism. Brian Williams didn’t exactly seem like a threat to develop a bigger reputation than Edward R. Murrow, yet I saw nothing of the derision that followed his appointment to succeed Brokaw–and NBC spent two years sending Williams around the world to GIVE him more journalistic spurs.
Why the derision and the difference? Could it be that Ms. Couric is a woman? I flipped by last night and Fox News and its merry band of disgraces–meaning Hume, Barnes, et al.–was making fun of her. A cartoon by our moderately liberal local editorial cartoonist this morning called it the “CBS Perky News.” Sorry, folks. I think some need to figure out what it is about a woman anchoring a newscast alone that is bothering so many people.
April 6th, 2006 at 7:00 am
What I find amazing is the way this event itself is treated as if it were news. I mean, WHO CARES that person A or person W has the job of reading lines of text off a teleprompter? I am happy to say I do not.
April 6th, 2006 at 7:16 am
“Fox News and its merry band of disgraces–meaning Hume, Barnes, et al.–was making fun of her”
Hume, the most persistently dishonest and ideologically unhinged of anchors, and Barnes, literally the dumbest, most fatuous pundit on the “big media” planet, aren’t fit to tour Katie’s colon…
April 6th, 2006 at 7:21 am
“First, the tour of her colon was part of an effort to promote awareness of colon cancer, which killed her husband.”
Okay, fine, but it still sounds like another example of the schmaltzy, overly-personal, celebrity-focused super-fab news reporting we’ve been subjected to for the past two decades or so. Obviously we don’t really need to see Katie’s colon, but I suppose charts and/or footage of random patients’ innards would miss the hard-hitting personal angle that’s needed to root the viewers in their seats–before the next episode of CSI:Miami!
But I guess I see your point: I suppose dressing up as Marilyn Monroe was to promote awareness of the pressures of fame, which ultimately drove Marilyn to drugs and threaten to give Katie above-normal blood pressure in her final years.
“Could it be that Ms. Couric is a woman?”
Absolutely. If I’m going to be subjected to colons, they better be manly and objective ones. Next thing you know there’ll be government subsidies for tampons. Enough is enough!
April 6th, 2006 at 7:32 am
If Andy Rooney is against it, I’m against it. And plastic packaging that’s hard to open. And the fact that I’ve got a bunch of pencils in my desk but I can never find a pencil sharpener.
April 6th, 2006 at 7:42 am
Apples and oranges: Hume’s show isn’t a news program, it’s opinion and commentary like Matthews and Dobbs. Katie’s going to be a NEWS anchor and editor.
Btw, you have all those pencils so that you don’t need a sharpener… there must be one of the “mechanical” version in there, right? But if it’s like mine then it is always out of lead.
April 6th, 2006 at 7:43 am
Lets see…which of my accusation cards can I play to trump/neutralize a threatening opinion I don’t like?
Well lets see, Katie is not black, religious, a lesbian or a foreigner, so that rules out my race, bigot, homophobe or xenophobe cards. Damn, those phobes cards are especially effective to.
She is female though, so clearly my gender bias accusation card is one I can play for my lame lack of anything legitimate. I’ll go with that.
April 6th, 2006 at 7:45 am
Response to Greens comment.
April 6th, 2006 at 7:47 am
Reg is giving this topic the kind of attention and thought it deserves.
April 6th, 2006 at 7:48 am
Here’s a scary thought – Andy Rooney is the last man standing (stooping?) from the “Murrow generation”. He was one of the first journalists to report from Auschwitz at the end of WWII. He also, ironically – given his unhappiness with Katie’s ascension – was a writer for the old Arthur Godfrey show. I don’t give a damn about Katie Couric, but maybe people can play a variety of roles in their careers and rise (or descend) to the occasion as circumstances present themselves. I pretty much only watch Lehrer – and not because Jim’s or the rest of his tepidly earnest crew are sizzling and brilliant but because people interviewed tend to actually know what they’re talking about, get more than a minute and can speak in paragraphs – so most of the other video news I see is on internet clips, but Couric hardly strikes me as having less gravitas than Brokaw – or the other new guys. Or, god forbid, those morons and narcisscists who populate cable…
April 6th, 2006 at 7:54 am
Ooops…I hope that last comment doesn’t make Lynn think I’m overly absorbed in this one. The one-liners were definitely a better tack…but they don’t call me Dan Blather for nothing.
April 6th, 2006 at 7:59 am
Yep, Reg, you definitely need to stick to the one liners on this one.
April 6th, 2006 at 8:08 am
Off topic, but another journalism note: The Village Voice has fired James Ridgeway. First Cynthia Cotts and now Ridgeway. Free or not I doubt if I’ll ever read them again.
April 6th, 2006 at 8:10 am
Apologies to Lynn, but one more thought on Couric. Why waste an experienced journalist in that chair ? Why not give it to somebody who understands the job of news personality without bullshitting us that they’ve got a shrine to Murrow back in the dressing room ? (Murrow, incidentally, was the first great news personality of electronic media.) Yeah, I know she’ll be an “editor” of the evening news as well as the reader, but it’s a fair bet that Couric is more likely than those new guys whose names I can’t remember to lean in the direction of trying to give the broadcast itself some of the weight that she doesn’t carry as part of her on-camera persona.
April 6th, 2006 at 8:19 am
Okay, I’m obviously avoiding getting anything resembling work done, but this comment on the Gawker article amusingly (and rather un-pc’ingly: natch!) summed up the V.V. staff petition:
“Leave it to Musto to sign his name in favor of reversal of discharge.”
April 6th, 2006 at 8:33 am
Yeah, but Katie Couric is cute!
April 6th, 2006 at 8:39 am
Do we know why Ridgeway was fired?
April 6th, 2006 at 8:47 am
No.
April 6th, 2006 at 8:59 am
To respond to a couple of the above comments, I am not saying that I think Katie Couric is more or less qualified than a bunch of other people (although I noticed that The New York Times has Alessandra Stanley, whose biases constantly color her reviews, attacking just about everyone associated with Today, and a report noting Couric’s hard news credentials). But the comments about her in a lot of places simply reek of sexism. If you want to question her journalistic background, fine. I will be glad to ask why the world didn’t come to an end when Hugh Downs, who made his name as a Today host, a quiz show host, and an announcer for Jack Paar, became the host of a news magazine on ABC.
As to the ridiculous salary that Ms. Couric is receiving, according to Tom Fenton’s wonderful book Bad News, Rather and Jennings all but said that they went to their bosses and offered to give back money if it would go toward correspondents, producers, etc. They were told that isn’t how corporations work. It’s like attacking an athlete for accepting a big salary when it is offered to him. Ideally, the recipient will do some good with the money, but if s/he doesn’t get it, you can bet someone else will.
April 6th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
The Katie Couric Debate Rages…
I predict that Couric will prove that she is an effective anchor and the “fluff” that she is known for on the Today Show, will be left at the Today Show. From all signals including the Washington Post, CBS is not planning to make the CBS Ev…
April 6th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
I think there is a little sexism involved here. Katie may be “perky” but am I the only one who remembers her smiling evisceration of Bob Dole in 1996 over tobacco support? Look, the BBC is honest and calls these people “newsreaders” which is pretty accurate.By the way Ed Murrow did not start out as a journalist. He was a speech major who was hired by CBS to organize a series of talks on public issues. He kind of fell into the post in London with no prior experience. Worked out pretty well I’m told. And so good night and good luck!
April 6th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
Marc,
After that McKinney blog, I actually thought you were losing it and were giving serious kudos to Katie—thank heavens, you were only being charmingly facetious.
Last night “yenta†Larry King, spent an entire show devoted to the tantalizing 15 million dollar babe—Murrow is not only rolling but he must be howling with laughter in his grave—MSM has reached new depths—Romper Room Journalism—perhaps she will do a segment on finger-painting in Afghanistan.
“Romper, bomper, stomper, boo.
Tell me, tell me, tell me do.
Magic mirror, tell me today.
Did all my friends have fun at play?”
Now, I don’t know if you guys are aware of this, but the commercials on TV are considered “content†and the shows are deemed “filler.†So in effect, Katie is frivolous filler very capable of selling content such as: Depends for the incontinent; Viagra and Cialis for those with erectile dysfunction; denture adhesives; and various high blood pressure medications; oh, and let’s not forget Metamucil, we all need a little extra fiber in our diet, well, perhaps, watching Katie will be more than sufficient filler, for us all to take one big crap!
“Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color.
Evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger.
There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER.†Excerpt from Murrow’s Keynote Speech
Perhaps this new job was a reward for “little Katie’s†help, in furthering the “war on terrorism.” She’s one of the top “poster kids” representing MSM and our government’s agenda, along with: Tim Russert, Andrea Mitchell, Lisa Myers, Katie Couric, Matt Lauer. All have routinely used their forums to support Bush and the war no matter what and suppressing, ridiculing or intentionally undermining any contrary opinions.
April 6th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
It could have been much worse. Can you imagine if someone from Fox 11 morning news got the gig?
April 6th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
My favorite column to date on Katie’s Ascension is from Tim Goodman, the wonderfully cranky TV critic for the SF Chronicle:
“CBS just spent a lot of money to put an iPod in its Edsel…
In a world not media or celebrity obsessed, there would be no inane hoopla surrounding Couric’s hire. She would simply be allowed to transition from a show with cooking segments to a show that sells ads about dentures. But that’s not our world, so one expects a certain uptick in the almighty Nielsen numbers, if for nothing else than curiosity…
She will not revolutionize the delivery mechanism first popularized by Uncle Walter, but she does have a better smile. In the plus column, she will certainly rankle the cranks on “60 Minutes.” Negatively, she will be there to wrangle a tear out of someone during the next national tragedy.
You know, the one after this.”
April 7th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
I’m not watching her. She’s more liberal than Dan Rather. CBS is going to slowly die like Air America.
April 7th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
“CBS is going to slowly die like Air America.”
Perhaps…but then we’re all slowly dying. Which beats the hell out of tumbling into the abyss like the Bush administration.
April 7th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
My aim is to keep it as slow as possible. Watching Brian Williams at NBC will be part of that plan.
April 8th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
CBS is going to slowly die like Air America.
Yeah, what they need is a big media conglomerate like Viacom behind them . . . :-!
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