K-K-K-Katie!!!

Such a fussaria, as my grandmother would have said, over the appointment of Katie Couric to the anchor chair at the CBS Evening News. I pretty much said all I had to say about it in today's treeware column.

So whoop-de-doo.

First, because it's pathetic that it took so long for such a "milestone" to be met. The New York Times alone moved three stories.

But this isn't the Oval Office. It's sitting behind a desk and reading five minutes, tops, of intros and extros off a teleprompter while looking serious when the story is sad and perky when the story isn't.

Nobody would bat an eye in Canada if Alison Smith or Lisa LaFlamme were to step into the anchor roles at CBC or CTV.

Second, because implied in yesterday's copious coverage of this not unexpected "news" is that Couric, 49, who announced her departure on her 15th anniversary as co-host of Today, may not have the chops for the job.

Noted David Carr in the Times last month: "In the morning, Ms Couric is on for three hours at a stretch, pivoting between dead Marines and cute dolphins at marine parks. Her husky giggle, which has been music to audiences for almost 15 years, would not get much of a workout at night, and her legs, admired everywhere, would disappear under the anchor desk."

Which, upon second reading, is not as sexist as you might think.

That's because, as Carr concludes, "the fact that networks seem willing to concede that the best man for the job is clearly a woman means that it just isn't the same job any more."

And that's the point: The shows have lost their weight, influence — and audiences.

As Jeff Jarvis jawed yesterday:

I can’t help shaking my head at the hiring of Katie Couric to anchor the CBS Evening News. All the talk about getting rid of the oracular voice of news is meaningless. They simply replaced the goofy if stern-faced oracle with the perky and still-cute oracle. And the truth is, it’s not about the voice at all. It’s about the name. It’s about celebrity. This is halfway to hiring George Clooney to read the news (’I may not be a journalist, but I played one in a theater near you’).

A little sexist, no? The woman did do two hours a day of live TV for 15 years -- and kept her program at the top of the ratings. Sure there were cooking segments in there. But she also stick-handled some very tough interviews. That makes her more than capable of sitting behind a desk and pretending to shuffle some papers while reading a script.

(By the way, I have heard from a number of top Canadian TV female journalists today, who all agreed with my take. Ladies, please feel free to comment!!)

CBS' moldiest crust of bread Andy Rooney was really welcoming. Not.

I think everybody likes Katie Couric, I mean how can you not like Katie Couric. But, I don’t know anybody at CBS News who is pleased that she’s coming here.

Meanwhile, the right-wing buzzards have already moved into attack mode, going after both Couric and her replacement on Today, Meredith Vieira.

Appearing on the August 30, 2004 edition of the ABC daytime show "The View," Vieira - a former CBS "60 Minutes" reporter - echoed the most virulent hate speech of the far left, telling viewers that she attended the anti-Bush protest held in New York City on the Sunday before the Republican convention opened, insisting: "I didn't go anti-Bush or pro-Kerry. I'm still so upset about this war and I'm so proud I live in a country where you can protest."

According to the Media Research Center's NewsBusters.org blog, Vieira displayed a photo of herself marching with her pre-teen daughter and her husband, Richard, who was the senior political producer at CBS News for most of the 1980s. Behind her in the photo is a protest sign featuring a "W," for George W. Bush, with a slash through it.

That was not an isolated incident, NewsBusters reported, noting that earlier in 2004, while speaking of the Iraq war, Vieira said, "Everything's been built on lies. Everything! I mean the entire pretext for war." Moreover, in March 2003, as the United States prepared to go to war, Vieira argued that anti-war protests "should be consistent and repeated every day, I believe."

Golly. A reporter telling it like it is.

Funny, this makes me like Vieira even more.

 

 

Comments

[Bill-Muskoka]

OH MY GAWD! A woman talking head! How dare they!

What will the Havard professor of neandethal thinking have to say about that? He will demand she return to doing housework, run barefoot and pregnant through her daily chores, and darn well have supper ready when hubby comes home!

Go Katie GO! She is attractive (not a bad thing to view on TV), intelligent, and has earned the position. So, does all this flap show that the U.S., Home of the Brave/Land of the Free is still really as backwards as, say, Afghanistan, when it comes to women?

I think so! Just no burqas required. At least not YET!

[Elvid]

So what's the Star's policy on reporters becoming actively involved in politics..
If a Toronto Star reporter had joined the demonstation against Canadian involvement in Afghanistan earlier this week and had walked around with a "X" across Stephen Harper's photograph, would that have been okay.
I was always told that journalists couldn't walk in the parade and expect to cover it.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Elvid,

'I was always told that journalists couldn't walk in the parade and expect to cover it.'

Isn't that called 'embedding'?

[Jay Currie]

It is not her sex but her lack of gravity. It is a fusseria simply because it demonstrates how far and how fast the institution of the "nightly news" has fallen. It is now entertainment and Katie is so damn perky she might keep the nightly news alive for another five years.

By which point its demographic will be that desirable 80-105 market. Bye bye legacy nightly news.

It is too bad Katie didn't get the job ten years ago when it became apparent that Dan's politics were getting in the way of his news judgement. She might have had a chance to actually do something with the show. Now her job will be to pilot it into the gentle night.

Courage!

[CapitalCat]

Vierra wasn't a reporter when she took part in the demo. She didn't cover the event and at best can only be called a commentator on the situation. That's a fairly normal practice at most media outlets.

The Toronto Sun still runs political columns by twice-defeated (as an independent and as a PC) candidate Peter Worthington and by former CCF-NDP MP Doug Fisher. Michael Valpy was switched to the faith and ethics beat by the Globe and Mail after he was defeated in the 2000 election. The CBC still features commentary by former Newfoundland Liberal political aide Rex Murphy.

BTW, where's the outrage from American right-wingers over the cable news shows hosted by former Republican congressmen Joe Scarborough (MSNBC) and John Kasich (Fox) or former Clinton assistant George Stephanopolos (ABC chief Washington correspondent)?

[And apologies to George, Antonia and all your fellow Greeks if I mangled the spelling of George's name!]

[Dana]

Couric will be a splendid addition to the Bush echo chamber. Media Matters has a good collection on her.

[Antonia]

Elvid,

I think you need to read the bit about sign again.. It was behind her. She didn't walk around ''with'' it.

Also, that was not being ''actively involved'' in politics. That was exercising her free speech rights. She was, at the time, the host of a daytime entertainment show, not the anchor of Nightline.

And Jay, her lack of gravity? Give me a break. Tom Brokaw was a morning show host before he became anchor. Couric played the part appropriate to a morning show. Now she can sit there and read off the Teleprompter just like the old farts do/did.

[Jay Currie]

Antonia, imagine the following headline, "Tom Brokaw to host Entertainment Tonight" Now imagine, "Walter Cronkite to host Entertainment Tonight". I have no serious problem with the idea of Brokaw moving to a show like that, I can't quite see Cronkite. Coric is over on the Brokaw end of the specturm and that tells me all I need to know about how seriously to take TV news.

We're off to happy chat land where all the gals are blonde and the words very short indeed. News value has left the building. It is the American equivilent of replacing Peter Mansbridge with Valerie Pringle.

And, hey, who's to say that news lite is not a very good idea? I mean we would not want the proles to have even a remote clue about what is actually happening in the world and nothing does a gloss over better than a perky woman of a certain age.

Coric is pretty much the embodiment of Postman's observation that television is an ongoing procession of "and now this" without the slightest attempt at context or meaning. The ability to giggle your way from "dead Marines to cute dolphins at marine parks" has trumped even the pretence that a news anchor has some reportorial or editorial duties.

One more reason not to own a TV.

[Montreal Simon]

A little sexist? How about a lot sexist. I'm big American tv news thrones. Instead of just keeping the weekend watch.What took them so long? I don't know if Couric has the gravitas (I don't get up that early).But at least she's got the age. What turns me off about television news anchors in this country is that so many of them are so young and so horribly perky. The boys as well as the girls. You get the feeling they must have rocks in their pockets to keep them from sticking to the ceiling like helium balloons. I can't imagine anyone over the age of 40 (the majority of people who still watch tv news) taking anything these perky balloons say seriously. Give Couric a chance and in five years, or ten, she'll be even better! Now how about an older woman for The National?

[Tom Popyk]

One thing yet to be mentioned in the wave of Katie-mania:

The wonderful, unassuming, work of Bob Schieffer.

In a medium that worships the anchor desk, Shieffer shifted the spotlight on the field, on the stories.

His newscast didn't just jump in the ratings -- it also did much to reastablish CBS trust with its audience after the Rather-gate memo.

Shieffer was old school.

I'm not convincved that was such a bad thing.

I, for one, will look forward to seeing what he does next.

[Elvid]

You called Viera a reporter, AZ., in your last sentence. Maybe not enough signs to go around.
Wonder if she'll still keep her gig on the Millionaire quiz show.

[Antonia]

You're right, I did.

Silly me for thinking a U.S. reporter would actually give us the straight truth on the Iraq War.

[Carl]

Elvid: Re Vieira doing both Today and Millionaire...my guess is probably not,considering that a. the latter is syndicated by part of Disney/ABC(Buena Vista) and b. The View was only 1 hour/day;Today is 3 hours.

Then again,stranger things have happened...

[Jiminy C]

Elvid - and Antonia - since Meredith is the Executive Producer of "Millionnaire", I'm assuming she'll have a hand in selecting her successor......
OK - which outs me as a "Millionnaire" (and Viera) Fan - Didn't know of her background in reporting -BUT I am impressed with her intelligence and a wonderful ability to put folks from all walks of lfe at ease - it seems!
Not sure that the news will convert me to a "Today" viewer - but for sure - whoever takes over on Millionnaire has some pretty impressive shoes to fill - IMO!

[Bill-Muskoka]

Thankfully, I still have my VHS tapes of 'Max Headroom' to watch when the 'real' news bores me to tears!

'MHR', now that was truth in news! ROFLMAO!

At the rate CGI has progressed it will not be long before there are no more embedded reporters, news choppers, cute little yellow SUV's running around with camera crews and portable talking heads.

All news will be garnered by UMV's and the computers will prepare the visual talking characters, after having properly run the PC sub-routine to assure no one is offended by anything.

There will be various viewer options available on sat and cable allowing the viewers to customize the talking heads, just like in 'Total Recall'. Here are some possible options:

1. Style: Sleazy, demure, serious, anal retentive, bozo/bimbo.

2. Appearance: You can't afford these threads, Possum Lodge, semi-nude, BONKERS nude

3. Voice: Low, midrange, high, screeching

4. Intellect: Smarter than viewer, same as viewer, dumber than a bozo or bimbo

5. Commercial filter: Commercials & news 'On'; Commercials 'Off' / News 'On'; Commercials 'On' / News 'Off'

6. Commercial and news ratings: Childish, Redneck, average adult, Liberal, neo-con, sadist, masochist, pure sex, psuedo intellectual.

There, now they can all plan for the future.

[sooey]

actually, ms zerbisias - i think we'd have to assume peter mansbridge had been struck mute by an act of god and somebody had accidentally pulled out lloyd robertson's plug if either allison smith or Lisa LaFlamme suddenly stepped into anchor roles at cbc or ctv. permanently. oh - and that all the other available men were on a plane what went down over the atlantic...

[David Imrie]

Uhh, did we not have Barbara Frum anchoring "The Journal", along with major news event programming, for most of the 1980s?

CBS News earned its reputation with solid radio reporting by Edward R. Murrow and his later questioning of public norms during the McCarthy era. In TV, the anchor desk would be held by seasoned war correspondents such as Walter Cronkite, political and spot reporters such as Dan Rather and Bob Scheiffer. Or, are we back to the time of the movie "Anchorman" where only ratings matter?

[Moni]

About Viera, I'm a little young so I only know her from the View. I was surprised when I saw her list of credits included reporting stints on 60 mins.
Her big challenge on Today will be to keep it clean. Discussion can get a little raunchy on the View. She'll have to tone it down for the morning.

ps My mom was always a big Frum fan.