Please check out your local MRC bias buster as we fan out to critique the new personnel moves in TV news. National Review Online was kind enough to offer me a little real estate today to argue that Katie Couric is just another Dan Rather: "But as different as her sparkly 'That Girl' personality is from Dan Rather's wizened weirdness, they have one thing in common: Truth is a malleable commodity, something to be stretched and smudged like Silly Putty on the Sunday funnies if the political cause is right."
Over at Human Events Online, MRC's Rich Noyes says the message to conservatives in the Couric and Vieira appointments is, well, tough luck, troglodytes: "CBS’s decision to name Katie Couric as Dan Rather’s permanent replacement on the 'CBS Evening News,' and NBC’s choice of daytime talk show host Meredith Vieira to replace Couric on 'Today,' both indicate a defiant attitude toward viewers fed up with the media elite’s insular liberal approach to covering political and social issues."
AP media reporter David Bauder has more pro-Katie happy talk from the media establishment, including NBC's Steve Capus and former CNN anchorman Frank Sesno.
BTW, Darrell Hammond had a Dan Rather impression for SNL's "Weekend Update" on Saturday night. His Rather commented that when he heard they handed Katie his chair, he laughed for five minutes. Then the caller told him it was no joke. And he laughed for another five minutes. Faux Rather proceeded to make complete fun of her lighter-than-air "Today" assignments. It wasn't Hammond's best humor, but it's probably a good approximation of what the Rather is privately thinking.
