Roundup of Katie Couric’s First CBS Evening News

by Tammy on September 5, 2006 · 8 comments

**For an update, please click through the jump to the end of the post. Wrytedit made an interesting post in Comment on 9/9, which has been placed in the main post below.**

1. The War on Terror is back to “square one.”

2. The Taliban are gaining strength, in part because of American brutality against Afghans. CBS reporter gets scooted past landmines by the Taliban for an exclusive interview with the enemy, as they hold weapons they’ll use to kill NATO soldiers and innocent Iraqis. The quote she gets? Paraphrasing here, “We used to like the Americans, but now because of their brutality, we are against them.” The point–everything is all our fault. And what are the chances that reported told the NATO command where the landmines are and where the enemy is camped out? Uh, nil.

I mean, really. Can you imagine, oh, Edward R. Murrow being snuck into Hitler’s bunker and going along with it, and not telling the allies where to drop their next bombs? Sheesh.

3. Interview with New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, in studio, to confirm that the WoT is a mess, President Bush doesn’t know what he’s doing, and the nation is run on fear. Katie anxiously asks what we can do about this, and Friedman suggests, in part, we go back to being naive. I’m not kidding.

4. A “Free speech” segment with Morgan Spurlock, saying we’re all really in the middle politically and all this extremist political talk is showbiz. Did he watch the opening segments about how the WoT is all screwed up and the sky is falling because of President Bush?

5. A segment about the first pictures of Tomkitten, the offspring of Tom Cruise and poor Katie Holmes. Is that a toupee on the baby? Why does the baby look like…Elvis?!

6. A story about an orphanage in Nicaragua and the Americans who paint the portraits of the kids. I guess this is the “feel-good” story. The Memory Project is what it’s called, and they’ve given out 4,000 portraits to orphans around the world.

While that’s all nice and sweet, I couldn’t help but think about how much of a difference Katie Couric’s 15 million dollars-a-year would make for orphans around the world.

But heck, at least they’ve got pictures of themselves.

Oh, and she wants people to send in suggestions on how she should sign off the show each night. I have an idea, how about “I’m Katie Couric, and while this all sounded like a really good idea, it has become clear after the feedback I’ve received that no matter how hard I try, I won’t be able to hide my leftist bias. So, after just two shows, I’m quitting and will devote the next few years to getting as many Moveon.org candidates elected to office as http://tammybruce.com/mt/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&id=1332&blog_id=1#possible. Oh, I’ll work for Hillary, too. Whatever it takes to get people like George Hitler Bush Macaca out of our hair. Good night, and courage. You’re gonna need it.”

Hey, what was that sound? Oh, I thought it was an elevator crashing to the ground, but it was just CBS’s news ratings.

UPDATE 9/9:

From Wrytedit in Comments, a point worthy of placement in the main post:

CBS Newswriters have been without a contract nearly 18 months. And CBS.com has the nerve to ask anyone to “be a newswriter and give us your bright ideas.”
As one of the real newswriters I’d like to suggest her close be “Les Moonves, how about giving the real newswriters a fair contract, Now?”

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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

1 TB in Baltimore September 5, 2006 at 7:47 pm

I watched the first 10 minutes (up to the interview with Tom Friedman) and couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t expect too much and have to admit that it was only the “curiosity factor” that got me to watch. I felt like I was watching the evening version of the Today show. I just can’t take her seriously in this role.

Guess I’ll go back to my Washington Times. BTW -The Washington Times had a great Katie cartoon today. All of these men are sitting around talking about her debut and their only critisism is that they should take the news desk away so they can admre her tan and muscular legs:-)

2 Bamagal September 6, 2006 at 3:54 am

Lucky for me I got home from work in time to miss the whole thing. The WSJ had an account of the the hoops the CBS brass has jumped thru just to make sure Katie had the right theme song. I was laughing out loud as I was reading the article. It was hysterical. It is obvious CBS doesn’t get it….it’s the Lib bias stupid!

3 ConnecticutBruce September 6, 2006 at 8:38 am

I saw the final 20 minutes of the show because I was working. She tried WAY too hard. It was as if she was pleading with the audience to “like me.”

The ending where she was casting about for a closing line was really weak. The montage of clips from Cronkite, et al was actually well done. But katie’s pathetic admission that she didn’t have a “closing line” summed up exactly what is wrong with her philosophy. Rather than worrying about a snappy sign off, she and her news department need to worry about reporting important stories fairly.

Once again, style trumps substance … to the detriment of the viewing audience.

4 ConnecticutBruce September 6, 2006 at 10:27 am

And there was this little throwaway line at the end of a story on yahoo news:

“She gulped a celebratory martini handed to her when the cameras turned off, according to CBSNews.com.”

looks like the whole experience has driven katie to drink :)

5 Janet September 6, 2006 at 3:23 pm

Great article, Tammy. I only watched to see how she did and she was so pathetic I actually was embarrassed for her. “See B.S.” is definitely gonna lose on this one. They just keep going from bad to worse.

6 Gettysburg September 7, 2006 at 8:37 am

As I understand it, Rush Limbaugh is getting a full 90 seconds to give a commentary tonight, (Thursday). I wonder what the chances are of an audio “glitch” during this time.

So Katie wants to have loads of fun by inviting people to log on to the CBS News website and suggest an ending to her liberal propaganda report. Someone at CBS might want to make sure the server is still working, since it has probaby been collecting dust since Rathergate.

An ending? Let’s see:

Katie: “From the news desk”
Katie under her breath: “Hillary in ‘08″
Katie: “This is Katie Couric”
Katie under her breath: “Bush lied”
Katie: “With all the news worth knowing”
Katie under her breath: “Conservatives are scum”
Katie: “Liberalism forev…….Oops, CUT!!!!!!”

7 ltlme September 7, 2006 at 7:21 pm

I will admit I watched her on Monday just out of a strange interest in seeing how much more screwed up the CBS news could get…..well, there did not seem to be much in the way worthy news. Anytime Katie mentioned something of interest she would cut off and say that I could find out more by visiting their website. WTF? I thought I was tuning into the news, to get news, not fluff stories, or to find out that Suri does exist after all. I couldn’t care less. I’d rather watch MSNBC.

8 wrytedit September 9, 2006 at 1:53 pm

CBS Newswriters have been without a contract nearly 18 months. And CBS.com has the nerve to ask anyone to “be a newswriter and give us your bright ideas.”
As one of the real newswriters I’d like to suggest her close be “Les Moonves, how about giving the real newswriters a fair contract, Now?”

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