Posted on 09/05/2006 5:55:00 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
September 5, 2006 - 08:39
Looks like CBS got itself a two-fer. Katie's not just an anchor - she's a comedian, too!
The highlight of her extended interview with Harry Smith on this morning's Early Show, touting her debut on tonight's CBS Evening News, was her claim that what the "old media" has to offer in contrast with the new media is . . . "integrity and standards."
Couric is apparently a jokester of the deadpan school, managing to get off the line without dissolving into guffaws. This from the woman about to take over the illustrious Dan Rather Forged Document Chair, named in honor of the hoax perpetrated by the old media and peremptorily exposed by that lacking-in-integrity new media. Is the irony lost on Katie that the opening for her job occured because Dan Rather was sacked over the exposure of his lack of integrity and standards?
Would Katie care for a more recent example? Take the way the MSM trumpeted L'Affaire Plame for more than a year, only to bury the story unceremoniously when it turned out that rather than representing a diabolical Bush administration plot to out a CIA agent, an anti-war State Department official was behind the disclosure.
Katie's rib-tickler arose in the context of a chat apparently conducted on Harry's apartment balcony overlooking Central Park. Smith observed that for the first time the Evening News would be available online for viewing at any time. Replied Couric:
"I don't really see it as a fight between old media and new media. I think old media has a lot to offer even if we are old. And I think that some of the integrity and the standards and the great reporting that you find in traditional mainstream media, to give that an outlet in newer technological forms, is only a positive thing for everybody."
Katie will be performing all week - don't forget to tip your waitress!
The difference from 30-35 years ago is that the GOP's conservative base, rather than sneering at and talking back to Walter Cronkite or Eric Severeid, mostly ignores their successors. What is more, the moderate middle is slowly shrinking. The South, lower Midwest, and Rocky Mountain States, except where minorities or transplanted Northeasterners or Californians hold sway, are increasingly Republican. The Northeast and Middle Atlantic region, except maybe Pennsylvania, and the West Coast are becoming solidly Democratic. The apolitical among us have numerous media channels that enable them to avoid watching the MSM news. Even the hard core left has what they call the indy media, to counteract what they consider to be the corporate media like the old three networks, Fox, CNN, and the major newspapers and news magazines.
Hopefully, the next Republican administration will realize that the MSM are paper tigers.
Yeah, right, she can't even admit to her own weight:
Not sure if your comment was intended as a compliment or criticism, but since I'm Finkelstein, if it was a compliment, thanks. If not, not ;-)
Many thanks, jigsaw! There's already a book in my past, an anti-terrorism thriller. But though in attracted an agent, no publishing deal was landed. But I plan to try again. I'd be curious to know what you would find more appealing from me - fiction or non-fiction?
GREAT POINT!! I wish I had remembered that when writing the original piece, but will go back and add it!
Try the veel.
I would imagine if you watch her you are going to want to wash out your eyes, ears, mouth and the nether regions (and I'm not taking about Holland).
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