There is no urgency to this broadcast, no bite, no edge and - for the most part - no personality. It is often like a pudding pop for the toothless crowd. Too polite, too nice, too eager to please and too willing to leave viewers at the end of each show with a little smile or a little tear, most often courtesy of soft-news guy Steve Hartman.
Verne was just getting warmed up:
There is no absolution for Couric either. CBS engineered a historic move bringing her in but is treating this like just another ho-hum anchor change. She has done nothing that a Bob Schieffer or even an Anne Curry couldn't have done. Read the TelePrompTer. Ask polite questions. Frown in the right places, and smile in the right ones.
Big deal.
Ouch. But there was more:
Because the good people at CBS News are either too gracious or too scared to read the riot act to Ms. Couric, I suppose the chore has to fall to me. The basic idea of the network news race, Katie, is to win - not make some dear old biddy in Dubuque happy and comfortable. The idea is to target the leader - in this case, "The NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" - and then systematically hammer away so that it loses its bearings, then its confidence and, finally, its viewers - to you. Instead, Katie, you're acting like a placeholder only two months in.
You don't want to travel? (And here we make note of former rival Diane Sawyer's triumphant reporting trip to North Korea recently for ABC). Too bad. CBS News is not in the business of facilitating your lifestyle. You're there to salvage one of the great franchises in broadcast history. It really is all on your shoulders, so why aren't you acting like this is the most exhilarating challenge in broadcast journalism, as indeed this is?
Verne then offered Katie some good advice:
No doubt bruised by the fact that ABC broke the story on disgraced congressman Mark Foley, "Evening News" has dutifully followed this rapidly aging scandal, and bored viewers into a coma. If this really is the most important pre-midterm story, then prove it (and don't find some doddering priest who tells you next to nothing, per last week's "scoop").
Otherwise, stake out your own hot story, thus forcing NBC and ABC to follow.
Makes one wonder whether Katie is starting to miss her previous position even if it did require her to smile for the camera while having an invasive gastro-intestinal examination.
