Posted on 09/06/2006 12:23:48 AM PDT by raccoonradio
CBS is spending $15 million a year on Katie Couric. That comes to $7.5 million per shapely leg.
The new CBS anchor flashed her gams just a few minutes into her debut on the “CBS Evening News” last night.
Couric opened strong.
After a taped voiceover introduction from Walter Cronkite, Couric segued to stories on the Taliban’s growth in Afghanistan from correspondent Lara Logan and President Bush’s warning about complacency in the war on terror.
Then it hurtled downhill.
Couric interviewed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, asking him to essentially translate what Bush had just said. Just a little chit-chat about the war on terror over a coffee table.
The camera framed Couric, chic in a white jacket and dark skirt, in a sultry position as she listened to her guest.
“Are we safer now?” she asked. Viewers across America were probably thinking her legs should be registered as weapons of mass destruction.
Is it sexist to be talking about an anchor woman’s appearance? TV is a visual medium, and a lot is riding on Couric’s new role. She is the first solo female news anchor for a weeknight network news programand CBS is expecting she will bring younger viewers to the third-place news program. Too bad somebody made the decision it was necessary to play up Couric’s assets over her intellect.
You never saw Dan Rather’s biceps.
After rushing through some headlines, Couric introduced two new features. In “freeSpeech,” “30 Days” star, filmmaker and grump Morgan Spurlock warned viewers not to fall for media hype about the state of the union’s divisiveness. In “Snapshots,” Couric reached back to 1949 to show pictures of Prince Charles as a baby.
That wasn’t the only baby onboard. In what passed for an exclusive, she unveiled Vanity Fair’s cover portrait of Suri Cruise, daughter of Tom and Katie Holmes.
“This is proof positive, yessiree, that she does exist,” Couric said.
Sounding like a third-grade teacher, Couric asked for viewers to suggest her signoff. For $15 million the 49-year-old managing editor can’t write her own? A montage of signoffs from across the years included Dan Rather, Ted Baxter and Ron Burgundy. Two of those characters are fictional. Here’s hoping CBS knew which ones.
Couric debuted on a new set with spiffy translucent desk, new credits and theme music from “Titanic” composer James Horner.
As last night’s broadcast demonstrated, CBS is spending a lot of money.
Too bad the network couldn’t dig up some spare change for actual news.
The Ledger in NJ trashed and bashed her and hope she'd go away!
"And that's the way it is from The CBS Titanic"
Pray for W and Our Troops
Did you see that last night? It really was pathetic. I usually give a break to a girl with great legs ...... but that show was about the worst. Too much obvious preparation. Yoi!
:-)
I'll give her six months............ then for dear Katie it's to a show like Entertainment Tonight.
[Couric asked for viewers to suggest her signoff.]
"We now give you back control of your TV"
Precisely.
Either that's a wig, or the kid got highlights. I see blonde under there, which begs the question: "If that's Katie's baby, who's the dad?"
LOL, missed that one.
I have not watched Rosie, Meridith or Katie in a long time. I do run across Meridith once in a while on the Millionaire program. I think she has a nice presentation. I have not seen her on the view.
I just haven't been able to get back onto Rosie after the Anne Hache thing. I think she's pretty funny, but I'm just tired of looking leftists in the face.
As for Katie, I think she's just trying to make her mark. She's quite timid in the new news program, has a hard time delivering her words without skipping a few beats.
I had wondered if she could pull this off, because nobody would be there pumping her up after every word that fell from her lips.
The new news program is quite shallow IMO. There's very little hard news and when there is, Katie has people on to translate English into English to we peons will know what was said, and more importantly what it all means. Thank heavens, imagine having to think for yourself.
Oh well...
Thanks for the comments. I don't think this news show (and I use that term rather loosely) is going to last long unless she can bump up the content.
Viera has a more dignified look, seems more professional but none of them could command my attention.
Speaking of CBS.....channel surfed for a bit last night and there was Joe Scarborough discussing CBS and Couric. He says with a perfectly straight face that he NEVER found CBS to be biased. LOL...poor Joe he works with Olbermann and he's lost his mind completely.
Thanks for the additional comments. I used to think Joe was pretty well grounded, but more and more it seems that as he's moved away from big serious issues, he's more adrift. I hate to see that happen. You would hope that these guys had a clue all along and still do, but then it becomes rather obvious.
Heard an offhand comment about Joe's friendship with Keith Olbermann. That's all we need to know. Pathetic bowing to peer pressure from someone who should know better.
I hadn't heard that, but you're right.
Scrappleface had "There's 22 minutes of your life you'll never get back."
The feminization of the evening news is complete.
I think this is an effort to save the remaining audience. Since men have abandoned network TV, they are focusing on the demographic they have left.
Katie Couric, Shark Jumper. (now there is a photoshop for her)
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