Bozell Column: The Failed Couric Experiment
The news leaked out Monday that Katie Couric is stepping down from her failed experiment as the anchor of the “CBS Evening News.” People inside the news business greeted the news as shocking. But what’s shocking is that Couric didn’t get the boot years ago. CBS’s ratings cratered while she earned $15 million annually.
Couric was once projected as the Great White Female Hope after Dan Rather’s involuntary retirement in 2005. His numbers in his last week had dropped to a last place 8.1 million nightly audience. But what did Couric deliver?
The end may have looked near at the end of March, when CBS saw its lowest-rated first quarter among both total viewers and the prized 25-to-54 demographic since at least 1992 – as far back as Nielsen’s breakdowns for the show go. Couric was averaging only 6.4 million total viewers (and less than 2 million among viewers 25 to 54). That was way behind NBC at 9.8 million and ABC at 8.65 million.
On NPR, evening anchor Michele Norris mourned that “when you reach back to the era of Rather and Jennings and Brokaw, it seemed like getting an anchor job in the past was much like a lifetime appointment, much like a Supreme Court justice.” Media reporter David Folkenflik answered that “holding one of these jobs is no longer being one of the highest priests of journalism because the notion of authoritativeness has been undermined. Even the New York Times does not command, in some ways, as absolute a voice about what is news and what isn’t any more.”
It is refreshing that Americans today reject the notion that we should bow before the network TV anchormen as the most hallowed of political actors, let alone “priests of journalism.” In the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate period, the media asserted themselves as a fourth branch of government, abiding by left-wing urgings to resist being “stenographers to power.” So they struck their self-righteous blows against “risky” tax cuts and “foolish” wars and asserted their courage in refusing to wear flag pins.
Now they’re surprised that more than half the audience has rejected them. So much for the high priests of authoritativeness.
The media elite’s rhetoric about rejecting the “stenographers to power” label sounds most ridiculous when facing one of their heroes. There was perky Katie, grinning and bowing before President Obama on July 22, 2009. "You're so confident, Mr. President, and so focused,” she blushed. “Is your confidence ever shaken? Do you ever wake up and say, 'Damn, this is hard. Damn, I'm not going to get the things done I want to get done, and it's just too politicized to really get accomplished the big things I want to accomplish'?"
She also raved over the Obamas when she wasn’t on the White House lawn. In September of that year, Couric joined many in expecting an Obama victory before the International Olympic Committee. "The Dream Team pushing Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympic summer games is nearly complete,” Couric cooed. “First Lady Michelle Obama landed today in Denmark where Olympic officials are meeting....The team captain, meanwhile, President Obama, arrives Friday ahead of the final vote."
Couric didn’t fail at this job or lack authority because she was the first female nightly news anchor. She lacked authority because she was such a blatant feminist and liberal activist. In her first weeks at CBS, she set the tone by attacking Rush Limbaugh as “certainly heartless” in mocking Michael J. Fox’s ads for Democrats. She supportively interviewed Fox for eight minutes on his crusade for embryo-killing stem cell research – just as she had repeatedly loaned her celebrity to the movie star’s foundation fundraisers.
Journalists hailed Couric for her pounding on Sarah Palin in 2008. As Folkenflik at NPR put it, she “earned praise” for how “her steady questioning style allowed Palin to reveal herself as uncertain, at times, of her bearing on policy issues,” which earned Couric “a bevy of awards.” But others saw it differently. She never, ever treated a Democrat this way.
Just days before, she hailed Joe Biden on the campaign trail. “He's the close-talking, free-wheeling, ice-cream eating Democratic nominee for Vice President.” His weakness for gaffes became a strength. “You say what's on your mind and I think people appreciate that,” she told Biden. “Have you found that you have to be uber-careful and disciplined in terms of being out on the campaign trail?”
No one imagines that Katie Couric’s replacement of CBS means less liberalism. The leading candidate to replace her is Scott Pelley, who’s been tougher on people he’s compared to Holocaust deniers -- global warming skeptics -- than actual Holocaust deniers, like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom he asserted was “genuinely religious, genuinely humble” and “said to be absolutely incorruptible as well.” The meltdown at CBS will continue.
- Brent Bozell's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
Katie Couric
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 11:04pm.
Katie's claim to fame on "The Today Show" was to ask a jilted bride "Did you consider castration"?
Imagine asking a jilted groom if he'd considered the 18v DeWalt cordless drill with a 2" paddle bit.
I hope Katie disappears into Ratherland.
Sorry, but she's trying to
Submitted by Beukeboom on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 9:53am.
Sorry, but she's trying to get a talk show of her own which will feature, as she puts it, "smart talk" which translates into common English as "liberal talk and conservative bashing." According to reports, NBC, CBS and Time-Warner's Telepictures division (associated with CNN) are all courting Couric with offers of not only her own talk show but also possible prime time exposé specials or continuing appearances on newscasts. Anyone remember Jane Pauley's talk show from several years ago?
No?
My point exactly.
The plan is to start up her show in 2012 but that may be too little, too late.
Oprah Winfrey's departure opens up the afternoon time slot which has already been filled by various shows including Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz (both Oprah show spinoffs), Ellen Degeneres, local news, et al.
Anderson Cooper starts up his own syndicated show in the fall of this year.
So Couric's timing is poor and will probably increase the odds of failure especially if her "smart talk" does turn out to be nothing more than her fawning over fellow liberals and bashing conservatives.
It didn't work for Air America.
Even better!
Submitted by Unsane on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 5:24pm.
Hell, does anyone remember Jane Pauley?
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Remember when Adrea Yates drowned her five children...?
Submitted by NeoKong on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 10:24am.
Katie reported the story as if Andrea was the victim and told viewers where they could go to send money for her legal defense fund. It was mind boggling. Post partum, post partum, post partum......
Amazing that the value placed
Submitted by bkeyser on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 11:05pm.
Amazing that the value placed upon an evening news anchor would be anything approaching $15M. I could see $150k, maybe. I'll bet CBS wishes they had that money back.
What's especially surprising
Submitted by Rusty Shackleford on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 11:52pm.
What's especially surprising is how these thoughtful, insightful, wise Lefties know how greedy it is to earn a lot of wealth but make an exception when they are able to earn a lot of wealth.
Maybe these brainy self-proclaimed intellectual geniuses only have a problem when someone actually has to work to earn that wealth. Maybe it's OK to be wealthy if you play make-believe, read off a teleprompter, or know how to bounce a ball.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Matthews: The Joy Behar of MSNBC.
Bill Maher: The Joy Behar of HBO.
Paul Krugman: The Joy Behar of The New York Times.
$15 million for a news
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 6:08am.
$15 million for a news anchor: Well deserved
$15 million for a banker: Theft
Notice also, Bristol Palin's income is news, but where are the news reports on Chelsie Clinton's income from her job at a (horrors, if a Republican worked there) hedge fund?
Feminist hack
Submitted by Tim Graham on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 11:11pm.
Her "steady" questioning of Palin? Couric was only steady in her attempts to trip up Palin and attack her for being pro-life. Forever fulfilling her role as the senior fellow of Margaret Sanger studies in TV news...feminist hack.
Like the rest of the liberal media, CBS never imagines that its strident bias is an audience problem.
Couric Replacement
Submitted by rwnewsnut on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:02pm.
If CBS were smart (which of course they are not), they would try something totally outside the box. If I were in charge of CBS news, I would offer the position to Brit Hume. They may as well try to carve out a portion of the audience they never attracted before. Let ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, PBS fight for all the liberals.
Can't fix stupid.
P.S. Frequent commenter Jer also suggested Chris Wallace. Now you have something. With Mike Wallace being a legacy at CBS, it would be a perfect fit.
Let's pick Scott Pelley. Oh brother. Again, can't fix stupid.
And, tonight,
Submitted by UpNorth on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 11:18pm.
Fox reported that Meredith I Love Barack Viera will be leaving Today at the end of her contract. Wonder if it's Comcast's idea, or Viera's?
So, the meltdown will, indeed, continue, at the Alphabet Obama networks.
That's surprising Upnorth
Submitted by shawn. on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 1:07am.
Katies ratings sucked for years but The Today show has been number one for a long time.
I don't analyze, Shawn,
Submitted by UpNorth on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 11:41am.
I just report, you decide. Actually, it said nothing about Today, other than to say that Viera was on the show. They just said that reports were that she was leaving at the "end of her contract".
Who knows, maybe it's a mutual agreement to part ways, or maybe there's something more?
Maybe the Alphabets are wising up?
Submitted by brutony1 on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 11:23pm.
Then again, maybe monkeys might fly out of my butt!
When will liberals WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE! -Me
Sharpton to replace Couric
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 11:24pm.
Every bit as eloquent as Obama.
With twice...
Submitted by almostacowboy on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 8:11am.
With twice the curiosity factor.
...and half the calories of
Submitted by Beukeboom on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 9:58am.
...and half the calories of regular bravo sierra.
Two things...
Submitted by Bill Brasky on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 11:41pm.
Great column, but you might want to put quotations marks around the term "stepped down"! Also, is CBS firing the executives that thought Katie Couric was anchor material?? She was never more than a chipper, lightweight, happy talking morning show CO-host. No wonder the CBS ratings have been awful. BTW, Scott Pelley will be worse.
Give up your inflated income! Pay more taxeszz
Submitted by Bbear11 on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:09am.
She should volunteer to pay 75% of her undeserved income in taxes instead of telling me to pay more/ She’ll still have 25% more left over in net than what she deserves.
This is typical of all failed
Submitted by MightyMouth on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:20am.
This is typical of all failed liberal experiments... they drag on for years even though proof exists they have failed. It's the reason the USA is flat broke! And who would disagree with me that Liberals are like tapeworms feeding on their host?
Heh, See BS' booting of the Perky One now is kind of like....
Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 1:45am.
...a hot air balloonist ejecting the sandbags after it has impacted the ground.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Or...
Submitted by DumbCanuck on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 8:25am.
...Wile E Coyote pulling the rip-cord of his parachute 2 seconds after hitting the ground! ;)
"There... Are... Four... Lights!"
LOL - Or the airbag deploying after the wreck
Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 9:29am.
Like in that Vacation movie
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Someone already wrote what I wrote so...
Submitted by Beukeboom on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 9:57am.
...nevermind.
I've never understood why
Submitted by Van Halen on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 1:49am.
I've never understood why people chirp over Couric so much. She's not very attractive, she looks up and mutters into the camera, and she's an uber-wealthy hypocritical self-centered blithering Liberal idiot of the worst kind. Never have I seen a redeeming quality about this woman.
Gushing over each other
Submitted by NotFondOfLibs on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 8:14am.
Liberals can't help gushing over fellow liberals, especially when they are failures. Couric was a known water carrier for the democrat party while on The Today Show. Her job was to torpedo any and all Republicans who came on, same as Matt Lauer. She especially loved having John McCain on because she knew she could get him to stab Republicans in the back. Republicans should have remembered this and never given him the 2008 nomination.
Why is it?
Submitted by Thunder Lizard on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 2:17am.
That liberals can get paid millions of dollars for being failures? Katie is just one of several recent examples.
Katie did give that softball interview to Sarah Palin
Submitted by melvin on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 6:12am.
And Sarah Palin failed it miserably. Katie might have been a failure as a newscaster, but at least she exposed Sarah Palin as the moron she is. Sarah Palin is now a joke. Thank you Katie Kouric for exposing this idiot.
LOL.... kook lib staggers by....
Submitted by stanrhintx on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 6:33am.
.... with the strange obsession with Sarah Palin that has come to be the hallmark of hateful liberals. Do you realize it's your hatred of Sarah Palin that is keeping her rolling in MILLIONS of dollars?
Cripes! I'd be an angry delusional lib too...
Submitted by BBallleaper on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 7:21am.
if my parents had named me MELVIN! Melvin, you just have to get over your self-hatred. Now I know that Sarah Palin is your worst nightmare: a patriotic, tax-paying, selfless servant of the people who only wants the best for America, but you've just got to accept the fact she will be the next President of the United States. And because she's a Christian, she'll even show love towards unfortunate leftist tools named MELVIN!
Yeah, he should have been
Submitted by bsny on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 10:07am.
named something like Willow, Piper or Trig, real American names!
wow bsny,
Submitted by Agnostic on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 2:04pm.
how racist of you - you are aware of course of the inspiration for the names of her children.
Certainly more American than, say,
Submitted by HockeyKid on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 1:56pm.
"Barack Hussein Obama".
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
The woman you want to be
Submitted by Unsane on Thu, 04/07/2011 - 10:37pm.
You cannot think of anything substantive to attack Sarah Palin with, so you attack her kids. Classy.
She is the woman you want to be.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Poor melveeng or melvinger.
Submitted by The Vet on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 6:50am.
Life must suck for the poor misogynistic melveeng or melvinger. Which variety of misogynist are you? The mumzietroll was too overbearing misogynist? Or the big sis was too mean misogynist?
Why Is Palin....
Submitted by GeneralAl on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 7:01am.
Why is Palin and idiot and moron in your eyes? I suppose you think Obama is a genius and a messiah! As far as softball goes, you don't know a heck of a lot about interviews!
"Old Soldiers never die, they just fade away"!
Speaking of idiots
Submitted by NotFondOfLibs on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 8:09am.
Yeh. You, Melvie. Couric sole objective in interviewing Sarah Palin was to torpedo her any way necessary. Couric is no objective journalist by any stretch of the imagination and you're another liberal stooge who is scared to death of Sarah Palin, otherwise you wouldn't be talking about her, would you Melvie? You have a good one, little cowboy. Now get outta here.
oh my
Submitted by wizardjr on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:01pm.
what a Melvin
Wasn't Melvin the fourth
Submitted by Beukeboom on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:08pm.
Wasn't Melvin the fourth Chipmunk?
Cmon, Zippers, you can do better than that.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:52pm.
.
Good riddance!
Submitted by stanrhintx on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 6:31am.
Good riddance to another liberal loser. I wonder who the next clown will be.
Another lefty
Submitted by Iron Tigers Vet on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 7:12am.
parrot hack... polly want some kool-aide?
And to think she wants to start up a "talk show" with some "news operation" to contribute to. Stay on the porch with the pups Katie.
Gee, and this was such good news for....
Submitted by BBallleaper on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 7:13am.
former cheerleaders when this leftist puppet began reading off a teleprompter each evening. Who knew you could make 15 mil just reading words and showing your legs??? It's always so sad when a leftist dream dies.
Couric
Submitted by NotFondOfLibs on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 8:04am.
Katie Couric was over paid at any price at CBS. That they paid this over rated liberal snot nose $15M a year just shows the stupidity of the people running CBS. Her reputation at "The Today Show" insured that she would have no audience with Republicans when she took over the CBS Nightly News. Liberals are always impressed with failure, especially there own. She will probably snooker CBS out of a few more millions before they figure out that their return is not exceeding their investment. Last laugh goes to the American televsion viewer who rejected this little cretin.
I don't blame Couric for earning $15 million, anymore . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 10:44am.
. . . than I blame Charlie Sheen for earning a fortune, and for the same reason. I think it's fair to say the CBS took a huge gamble on Couric and lost, but that's showbiz.
The prestige of being a network news anchor has always been exaggerated. One doesn't have to be a veteran reporter to read a teleprompter.
In Couric's case, she had to sell the news and the audience was less and less interested in her product. How much blame is hers and how much can be ascribed to CBS News isn't really important. The bottom line is that she took over the anchor job on a failing news program and couldn't stop the slide downward.
Couric made $ millions, and CBS wasted time and money. That's showbiz.
Couric was one of the worst
Submitted by Lentenlands on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 8:09am.
Couric was one of the worst anchors in history, inserting her marxist-feminist agenda attempt at brainwashing the American public into believing the pap smear of nonsense she attempted to pass off night after night as truth.
CBS was stupid to hang on that dead albatross as long as they did. Maybe they should find an anchor that loves the truth and what is good and right instead of a marxist activist that loves lies and promotes what is wrong and illogical and incorrect. Judge Andrew Napolitano already has his own show but maybe he could recommend someone for the job.
http://smashabanana.blogspot.com
Palin has been exposed many times since Couric
Submitted by ladeflippinda on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 8:12am.
Couric got Palin to trip up in an interview. Palin has proven herself to be lacking in leadership ever since she quit her job as governor.
Her excuses are old and she should never be considered presidential material.
Just like Mme. Couric should have never been considered anchoress material.
TROLL
Submitted by Beukeboom on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 10:01am.
Do not feed the troll.
frankie, izzat you?
Katie is too...
Submitted by almostacowboy on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 8:14am.
overpaid; gummy; unattractive; uninteresting; ill-informed; subjective; did I say boring? boring;
Katie who...
Submitted by DanOinOhio on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 8:24am.
...and what's a "CBS"?!
A "CBS"
Submitted by Comrade Jim on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 10:35am.
is a Cartoon Company and "Katie Couric" is one of their failed cartoon characters.
CBS is now considering Daisy Duck for the job.
Minnie Mouse turned CBS down.
Submitted by Beukeboom on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:10pm.
Minnie Mouse turned CBS down.
Pelley is one step short of Crazy Larry O on the acid scale.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 8:34am.
He strikes me as a genuinely nasty bastard, not to mention a rapid far left lib.
I predict his numbers will be even worse than Buttercup's.
You may be right. And then
Submitted by Beukeboom on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 10:02am.
You may be right. And then Couric can proclaim that CBS should have never fired her....er...allowed her to go.
The paradox is that veteran news folks . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 10:48am.
. . . like Pelley crave the anchor jobs as the pinnacle of journalism success, while the public has grown more and more disenchanted with anchors.
Pelley may see himself as the next Walter Kronkite, while most of us will write him off as merely the next Walter Kronkite, if you catch my drift.
Well, maybe
Submitted by UpNorth on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 11:47am.
Pelley can don a helmet, and go to Tripoli. Then he can proclaim that the war is lost and we'll have to negotiate, not as winners but as co-equals. This network deserves whatever it gets.
Speaking of experiments, I
Submitted by Beukeboom on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:13pm.
Speaking of experiments, I read in a trade publication recently of a city's local news outlet trying out a new local news format without anchors. It's basically going to be thirty-minutes of news with reporters intro-ing and voicing over stories. If it works it could eventually become the norm for the network news.
Yes, but which is the real K K K Katie?
Submitted by Blonde on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 9:48am.
The one in the "serious glasses", the one dancing at her party in a mini-dress, or the one who asked Secretary of State, Condi Rice, "as my fifteen year old daughter says, who made you the boss of them?".
Katie's as shallow as a petrie dish, and not much brighter. Good riddance, Ms. Couric. I hope we've seen the last of you and your vented spleen.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
It is about time!!!
Submitted by Patriot II on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 11:23am.
That air headed bimbo/communist liberal.....is sickening....when the clown said "patriots" scared her to death...that's when she should have been thrown out on her ignorant ass! imho
I look for Katie
Submitted by misterbee241 on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 11:24am.
to end up on the Oprah network. Nobody watches that either.
cute doesn't cut it
Submitted by wizardjr on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:06pm.
The air headed bimbos that watched her morning show are not likely to be news mavens so the idea that they'd follow her to the evening news was ludicrous to begin with. The viewers already there are looking for hard news and serious views and Cutie Katie did not (and could not) provide that with any real skill. QED.
Cutie Katie is like the high school honey who goes out into the real world and meets reality somewhat like a car meeting a bridge abutment at speed.
Oh yeah, and Palin is dumb
Submitted by wizardjr on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:07pm.
there ya go trolls, "Look over here.... bright shiny object."
How'd that hit piece on Palin work out for you Perky Katie?
Submitted by Free Stinker on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 7:39pm.
"The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who crossed Sarah [Palin]" --Dave Dittman
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
Ditto Dave Dittman
Submitted by Blonde on Thu, 04/07/2011 - 12:24am.
....actually, Double Dittos, Dave Dave Dittman!
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
perfect replacement
Submitted by thewook on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 11:55pm.
Keith Olbermann
Masterful put-down here
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Thu, 04/07/2011 - 12:07am.
I wish I'd said this, but it belongs to somebody over at YAHOO via WND.
Beautiful!
Submitted by Beukeboom on Thu, 04/07/2011 - 11:34am.
Beautiful!