(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.

[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."