Zany Katie Couric - A Network News Anchor?

[Aggie87]

When I was a kid, the TV networks got their news people from newspapers; but for the past twenty years they have gotten them from local TV news channels. So I think both the men and the women lack the smarts to be good at the job. Nowadays they're just pretty faces.

I think this is the key. These positions have evolved into news readers, not anchors with substance and credibility as in generations past. The requirements (and definitions) for a successful anchor seem to have changed quite a bit. I think Couric fits the bill for a current anchor. She can read a teleprompter, and doesn't hurt your eyes. Isn't that essentially what Brian Williams, Bob Woodruff, & Elizabeth Vargas are, too?

"Image is Everything" - Andre Agassi in those old camera commercials

[Johnny E]

This just in:

Ashlee Simpson to anchor new ABC nightly news!

[Guest]

First of all, I'm married to a female broadcast newsperson, so I have no issue with credibility and capability of women in that job. (scroll down for my sexist split-personality)

Second of all HELLO! Hasn't anyone noticed how silly network news has gotten? CNN Headline news is more like a morning talk show now than it is like the news show it was born as. It's all in the style of Morning Latte now, with very few exceptions. This move will have no appreciable impact, in my opinion, on the degradation of the quality of American TV news. Edward R. Murrow is no more.

I can picture (and have seen) Rudi Bahktiar, Robin Meade, and Christi Paul sharing serious information.

I too can and have pictured Robin Meade....

[7/4]

First of all, I'm married to a female broadcast newsperson, so I have no issue with credibility and capability of women in that job. (scroll down for my sexist split-personality)

Second of all HELLO! Hasn't anyone noticed how silly network news has gotten? CNN Headline news is more like a morning talk show now than it is like the news show it was born as. It's all in the style of Morning Latte now, with very few exceptions. This move will have no appreciable impact, in my opinion, on the degradation of the quality of American TV news. Edward R. Murrow is no more.

They are in a race for ratings. So...eh...Soledad O'Brien was somewhere else before American Morning. Where? Playing 2nd gun to Katie Couric.

[GregK]

Exactly. I asked my wife to picture Katie Couric gravely looking into the camera and announcing, "The World Trade Center has been struck by two passenger airliners" and there was no way my wife could imagine it. The first truly major news event, CBS will regret this move.

Uh, didn't she do just that? She was on the air when it happened.....

[7/4]

Exactly. I asked my wife to picture Katie Couric gravely looking into the camera and announcing, "The World Trade Center has been struck by two passenger airliners" and there was no way my wife could imagine it. The first truly major news event, CBS will regret this move.

Uh, didn't she do just that? She was on the air when it happened.....

Maybe he'll notice that you said something, he's still ignoring me.

[Big Wheel]

Don't really care either way. Television is the worst way to get news.

Guy

Disagree completely. TV may not be the best way to get in-depth reporting (and perhaps even accuracy) but it's the best way to get breaking news and "you are there" coverage of an event. What, you'd rather wait up to 24 hours to read about it in the paper, a week for a magazine report, or even longer for the book? Radio has more limitations than TV, imo, and the internet has little credibility when it comes to breaking news.

Duhhh....there's nothing TV news can do that the "breaking news" headline on CNN.com or another news site can't. Or, at least, nothing particularly newsworthy. I don't need to see every house slowly sinking underwater or every additional person that jumps from the building to accurately get the gist.

[BruceH]

Ubu, 1971? Yikes, I did not know that - do you guys have electricity?

Well yes, and we've had anchor women on TV for years, and nothing's more normal than that... (but that 1971 *does* bug me! Even though I wasn't born then...)

1971??? Woah! And I though the U.S. was bad for waiting until 1920 to give women the vote.

[BruceH]

I think many people have long thought that the CBS Evening News needed more perkyness.

(Or is that "perkiness"?)

[Jim Alfredson]

You know what? I'm not going to pre-judge this. Maybe she'll do a fantastic job. Maybe the image on the Today show is the one the producers wanted, not the one she wanted.

I've always thought the CBS Evening News was pretty good. When I want and have the time to be more informed by watching TV, I watch Jim Lehrer. But I agree that the best place to get news these days is the internet.

[JSngry]

I think many people have long thought that the CBS Evening News needed more perkyness.

(Or is that "perkiness"?)

I think it's "leg".

[BruceH]

Maybe she'll do a fantastic job.

True enough.

[Soul Stream]

Has anybody seen the network news lately? Why do you think guys like Ted Koppel and Tom Brokaw split? The network news organizations started turning into "Dateline at 5 o'clock" years ago. Hard news and reporting has been replaced by sensationalism of lazy journalism. Katy is actually a perfect fit for this era of "no news News" we live in.

[Tjazz]

What it called? The Peter Principle...

[fasstrack]

I mostly can't stand The Today Show, and I pretty much never watch the CBS Evening News.

So this change is one I'll never even notice, for all practical purposes.

I hear you. But it's exactly for the stupidity of the show, not engineered by Couric but tolerated and served up by her as she is a team player that she needs to move on. She just has so much more on the ball than the show as designed by ratings-hungry execs could let her use. I believe the morning TV audience mostly does not want stupidity or pablum but is being force-fed it by TV market researchers who misread this, take their wrong-headed conclusions and deliver them into the hands of their bosses who program accordingly. Now morning TV will lose one of its finest resources to the evening news and it will be their loss and evening news' gain.

Watching Couric find clever ways to rise above the show's general inanity and in particular the almost every utterance of airhead partner Matt Lauer was for me the most entertainment offered by the Today Show. Now Katie will get to show what she's capable of in a forum she deserves and Today and Lauer will get the perky moron they deserve.

Water truly does seek its own level sometimes.

Edited April 16, 2006 by fasstrack

[Quincy]

So after all the speculation what do people think?

Her "Hi there" can be easy enough to make fun of and asking the public for sign off suggestions in her first week was nauseating, but on the whole I think she's settled in and is good as the alternatives. As far as the format changes, that's not really her doing.

Tonight her interview with Michael J. Fox*, and more to the point the camera work that showed what Parkinson's is like, was very powerful stuff. Yet she didn't fawn over him either, nor did she just push the stem cell side. As one who lost a friend to the disease and have family who may have benefited from stem cell research (too late now though) maybe I'm being overoptimistic, but I can't help but hope that it may have shaken (sorry) a few people to favor research.

*Caught between innings (luckily) of the World Series.

[Jim Alfredson]

Well, I liked Bob Scheifer. I haven't watched since that first week because all the new features really turned me off. She's done okay, but the program has inched one step closer to Entertainment Tonight.

NPR and PBS for me, I guess.

[Quincy]

Well, I liked Bob Scheifer. I haven't watched since that first week because all the new features really turned me off. She's done okay, but the program has inched one step closer to Entertainment Tonight.

NPR and PBS for me, I guess.

Yup, I liked Bob better than any of the anchors of the past 20 years or so.

It's not the same broadcast, and big parts of it annoy me. The ET aspect as you mention. I still (half)watch CBS out of habit. PBS comes on after so there's no conflict. Though honestly I've always felt PBS is overrated.

[GregK]

why couldnt they just give it to schieffer? at least with him you don't expect a celebrity update

[Christiern]

I tried to watch, a couple of times, but I have never been able to take Couric seriously, and her new role hasn't changed that. An entertainment show with a faux "free speech" feature (it has already been exposed as such)--I hope their ratings drop show this to have been a mistake.

Well, network news is probably doomed and with baggage-laden Blitzer, CNN is anything but the "most trusted" news station. Jack Cafferty is a breath of fresh air on that stupid "situation room."

[GregK]

yep, Cafferty is great

[Rooster_Ties]

I saw Couric for the very first time Tuesday night, two nights ago (my wife heard a rumor that they were covering some story that somehow related to some U.S. Dept of Education case (my wife works for the Federal Dept. of Ed.), and she wanted me to tape CBS News for her). The story never materialized, but it gave me/us our first chance to see Couric in action.

We were both VERY unimpressed. Overall, it seemed more amateurish than we were expecting.

Specifically, Couric's questions for her standup reporters (at the Pentagon, the White House, and/or in front of Congress) were VERY leading (and even more so than is the norm for those kind of onscreen interactions).

She basically set up the question, asked the question, and then put an answer in their mouths for them to acknowledge or refute!!! Seriously, the exchange was something like this...

"With all the latest blah, blah, blah going on in Iraq, what is the administration's current thought reguarding blah, blah, blah?? Some have said blah, blah, blah, which others have taken to mean blah, blah, blah -- isn't that right??"

Seriously!!

My wife and I looked at each other, and we were both thinking WTF is that??

Also, she momentarily seemed somewhat unsure of herself at a number of points as well, which might be a result of her still being new to the broadcast. But still, as much broadcasting as she's done, I would expect her to be more on top of her game than what we saw Tuesday.

Edited October 27, 2006 by Rooster_Ties

[Christiern]

I know what you mean. I once saw a local CBS reporter push a microphone into the face of a crying woman whose husband and 2 children had been found dead: "How do you feel?"

[patricia]

I know what you mean. I once saw a local CBS reporter push a microphone into the face of a crying woman whose husband and 2 children had been found dead: "How do you feel?"

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I remember my mother being totally put off by that question, which seems standard still, "How do you feel about ... ?"

I still remember her saying to no-one in particular that if the mother being asked that question were her, she would punch the reporter in the face.

It was funny at the time, considering Mother was 4'10" tall and didn't weigh more than 85 pounds, never raised her voice and was totally non-violent.

Then she said that it was even more disgusting when the cameras would zoom in, hoping to get a shot of grief and even better, real tears.

TV has been tabloid for years now. They show you, because that's what they're best at doing.

Edited October 27, 2006 by patricia

[Jazzmoose]

I can't believe there are still people who take TV news seriously...