Posted on 06/12/2007 9:03:57 PM PDT by Dan Evans
Leslie Moonves, CBS chief executive, on Tuesday suggested that sexist attitudes were partly to blame for the faltering performance of Katie Couric, the news anchor he recruited to the network with a $15m annual pay package.
“I’m sort of surprised by the vitriol against her. The number of people who don’t want news from a woman was startling,” Mr Moonves said of the audience’s reaction to Ms Couric, who this month brought ratings for the CBS Evening News to a 20-year low.
He reiterated, however, that he was committed to Ms Couric and that he believed her programme would succeed in spite of its last place standing behind rivals ABC and NBC.
Ms Couric’s gender has been a central issue since CBS poached her from NBC’s Today show a year ago and made her the first woman to solo anchor a network newscast, filling the seat of such legends as Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather.
CBS was hoping to draw younger, female viewers to a US television institution whose audience has halved in the past 25 years.
Ms Couric has managed a 2 per cent increase in women age 18 to 49 since her September debut. However, that has been more than offset by an 11 per cent decline among men over 55, who still constitute the bulk of the evening news’ audience.
Mr Moonves has previously chided critics for scrutinising Ms Couric’s wardrobe and personal life. However, his latest remarks, made during a breakfast sponsored by Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Communications, were his most explicit about gender bias.
They come at a time when New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is testing whether Americans are willing to accept a woman in another authority position – as president.
Linda Mason, head of standards at CBS News, last month told the network’s Public Eye blog: “I had no idea that a woman delivering the news would be a handicap,” and that the public seemed to “prefer the news from white guys”.
In the absence of specific research, some analysts took issue with that argument. “People get news from women all the time – on local news, on morning shows. I’m sceptical of his discovery of sexism,” said Andrew Tyndall, whose Tyndall Report monitors newscasts. He and others have criticised the style of Ms Couric’s newscast, which emphasised soft features over hard news – something CBS seemed to acknowledge this year when it replaced the producer.
“Some of our changes didn’t work,” Mr Moonves said on Tuesday. But he added: “If TV news doesn’t want to go the way of the newspapers, which are declining rapidly, then we have to try change.”
In other words, Couric seems to have a "gender gap" among men.
Now see, I'm a little slow in these things, but doesn't hiring Katie to make this happen make THEM the sexists?
OH please Mr Mooveres your anchor lady sucks
It’s bad news delivery. It’s bad TV. It’s just bad, but he cannot admit it.
“I’m sort of surprised by the vitriol against her. The number of people who don’t want news from a woman was startling,” Mr Moonves said
Sure, Moon-baby.......thats why Fox News is eating your lunch with all those Babes, right?
ahhahaha and they pay her a lot of money to. i bet if they doubled what they pay perky katie they might be able to hire the fabulous ANNIE COULTER then they’d have something...... just stand back and give Annie the mike. you get both the truth and the ratings then...
article should be, CBS is sexist, thats why low rating
Mish you tryin to make sense out of what the libs say and do......tsk tsk tsk....i wouldn’t waste my time on that one if i were you . still you do point out whats obvious to us and a mystery to those birds....good goin.
hahahahaha BWHAHAHAAAH....i’ll if you show me your Colonoscopy ...i’ll show you .....
He reiterated, however, that he was committed to Ms Couric and that he believed her programme would succeed in spite of its last place standing behind rivals ABC and NBC.
COMMENT:
I believe I have heard this same story or one like it from our President or his people on immigration.
Immigration Shamnesty is not failing because it is a bad bill it is failing because of all those bigoted and racists conservatives, moderates and progressives who do not trust government don’t want to be bullied.
Now who would have thought old moLester Moombeam would copy anything from Bush.
My Mother doesn’t even like her.
Cries of Racism, Sexism and all those other -isms are just lib language for, “We failed, and we resent those that succeed”.
Apparently sexism is the reason there are no women starting in the NFL too.
Hey CBS, how ‘bout hiring a pro-American American???
No, oh well have a nice slide into oblivion.
Leslie Moonves, cry me a river......Katie Couric sucks!
the term ‘vapid twat’ has never meant so much before Katie came on the scene.
If I had to watch the news on TV, which I do not, I would much rather watch an attractive woman than a man.
CBS’s problem is their agenda.
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