(Rick Kaplan) To Rescue Katie (Couric)?

NY Post ^ | 12/28/06 | Richard Johnson

[jimbo123]

RICK Kaplan, the veteran network news exec who most recently ran MSNBC, is rumored to be coming to CBS News to help boost Katie Couric's ratings on the "Evening News." After a brief stint on top of the ratings when she launched in September, Couric has been mired in third place, right where Bob Schieffer was and where Dan Rather was before him. Kaplan, who ran ABC News when his friend Bill Clinton was in the White House, has been unemployed since Dan Abrams replaced him last summer at MSNBC. CBS News denies Kaplan is coming aboard, but the buzz goes on.

[jimbo123]

The kiss of death, if true...

[rod1]

Oh please let it be true. Kaplan had trashed every network he every even visited. CNN for example.

But the MSM loves deck-chair-rotating losers. MSNBC should reciprocate by hiring Mapes and Dan Rather as their new ethics officers.

[johnny7]

She should consult the Iraq Study Group...

[ClearCase_guy]

After a brief stint on top of the ratings when she launched in September...

Ratings have been going down hill since that very first show.

[mewzilla]

The Strange Odyssey of MSNBC's Rick Kaplan

[Just another Joe]

I could see GABE Kaplan rescuing Katy but Rick?

[mewzilla]

Wonder if the Chris Matthews speaking fees thing had anything to do with this?

[jimbo123]

[AppyPappy]

Even I could put Katie in first place. All she has to do is start attacking the Democrats in Congress. That would make her unique.

But CBS is pwn3d by the Democrats so she will have to suffer in last place.

[TomGuy]

I had predicted CBS News would try a co-host to help Couric out. I just thought it would be a month or so earlier.

CBS has too many $$$ invested in her at this point.

[savedbygrace]

The ratings for her 1st show are kinda like what happens to traffic going past a bad accident. Rubberneckers.

________________________________________

Guy goes into a Ferrari showroom and wants to buy the fastest, meanest car on the showroom floor. The salesman, realizing the guy couldn't handle it, asks, "What would you do if you were driving this car at 160 miles per hour, and came over the top of a hill, and there's a semi truck laying across the road ahead, giving you no time to stop?"

Guy says, "I'd wake up Joe."

"You'd wake up Joe? Why?"

"Joe ain't never seen a bad accident before."

[Just another Joe]

Yep, that's the one that could save Katy.

[wagglebee]

After a brief stint on top of the ratings when she launched in September,

IIRC, this "stint" lasted about an hour.

[abb]

Rumored new advertising slogan for CBS News

[RabidBartender]

...and Gilligan is the new captain of the Titanic!

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

didnt they try this with rather and chung?

Hey CBS!!! 2 liberal propagandists is not any more effective than one.

Brit Hume for anchor (although I love special report)It would be so sweet to see him kick ass in the ratings. Of course CBS will never do.

[PGalt]

FReeper humor bump! LOL!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I could see GABE Kaplan rescuing Katy but Rick?

How about Gabe Kapler?

Shown with wife.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

CBS has too many $$$ invested in her at this point.

The cardinal sin in business and poker is throwing good money after bad. Future decisions cannot erase past mistakes. Successful businesses are forward looking and CBS was very successful for a number of years. Of course, CBS is just a Viacom brand these days, there is no "CBS" corporate entity any more.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I dunno, saw a seconds of her interview with the mountain climber's widow (half time network promo, iirc). Anyway, it was appalling. What are those brainiacs at CBS thinking? Do they ask their current aging boomer wives who they think is the most "serious" and interesting person in journalism today?

[Just another Joe]

How about Gabe Kapler?

Nope, even HE couldn't save Katy.
It would take someone with Kaplan's vast knowledge of how to turn a phrase the comedic way to save Katy.

[Congressman Billybob]

Let's see what we have here. An executive with another network, that is going down the toilet fast, will be brought in to "save" Couric's Nightly News, which is going down the toilet fast. Why do I have a vision of someone throwing a concrete life buoy to a drowning woman?

Congressman Billybob

Latest article: "Nancy D'Alesandro's Culture of Corruption"

[Right_in_Virginia]

I had predicted CBS News would try a co-host to help Couric out.

If this happens, watch for a cooking segment on the evening news---it's what Katie does best ;-)

[hosepipe]

[ RICK Kaplan, the veteran network news exec who most recently ran MSNBC, is rumored to be coming to CBS News to help boost Katie Couric's ratings ]

Oooo..Ooo.Ooo.OOO.OOOoo.. Nevermind.. - persona: Horshack

[BW2221]

Gabe Kapler would be the perfect fit. A sub-par baseball player with a sub-par news anchor.

[Surtur]

Didn't CBS properties spin off from Viacom recently? I think CBS properties are now a stand alone enterprise.

[TomGuy]

If this happens, watch for a cooking segment on the evening news---it's what Katie does best ;-)

I've noticed on FoxNews, that E.D. Hill's 3 hours have turned into more fluff than substance any more.

I don't understand why news broadcasts seems to think they need fluff and entertainment. Don't they realize people tune in for news, not fluff?

[Bratch]

The networks are enamored with the female demographic.

[Dante3]

Would CBS be that stupid? That is like an NFL team recruiting Maurice Clarette or DA Mike Nifong charging someone with a alibi with rape and asking a lab to keep evidence from the defense. Then again . . .

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

That may be, but CBS was acquired by Westinghouse Broadcasting that then began operating under the name CBS. That entity was swallowed and now apparently disgorged by Viacom. CBS is like RCA, only a brand name.

[Right_in_Virginia]

I don't understand why news broadcasts seems to think they need fluff and entertainment.

Consider the "talent". Without the fluff and entertainment, they'd actually have to do some research, do some actual work.

Fluff is easier.

[outfield]

Good analogies, or like the Raiders or Texans hiring Matt Millen away from the Lions to be GM.

This is a puzzling move if true and if CBS wants Katie to actually get worse ratings then they have hired the right guy. MSNBC is a wreck following Kaplan's brilliance and Dan Abrams has carries on that fine tradition of mediocrity.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

All them Po' elderly folk in Alzheimer's wards still watch CBS. They have problems relating to "Perky" because she doesn't make sense. They need to get Blather back. now that's BS they can sink their gums into.

[Enduring Freedom]

Rick Caplan, a Clinton activist and extremist liberal has just taken over as the head of MSNBC. Caplan was formerly with CNN and ABC and has a reputation as a Clinton ideologue who uses his position of power in the media to promote his leftwing agenda.

While at CNN and during the Clinton Whitewater scandals, he ordered CNN reporters to "limit the use of the word 'scandal'" in reporting about his close friend Clinton. And when the Monica sex scandal erupted, Caplan used the power of CNN to vilify Clinton's critics.

FrontPage Magazine has a lengthy article describing Caplan's shameful leftist bias and his misuse of the media to promote his ideology. As author Lowell Ponte notes, "With Caplan's entrenchment, MSNBC will, like the other establishment networks, almost certainly become just another cookie cutter stamping out a daily batch of predictable one-sided, pro-Democrat, anti-Republican, pro-Leftist propaganda."