Posted on 03/08/2007 1:37:23 PM PST by Mr. K
NEW YORK -- CBS News on Thursday fired the executive producer of Katie Couric's struggling "CBS Evening News" broadcast and appointed former CNN and MSNBC president Rick Kaplan to the job.
Kaplan replaces Rome Hartman, who had position since before Couric began at CBS last September, said Sean McManus, CBS News president.
The newscast has been a distant third in the ratings behind ABC and NBC. During last month's pivotal ratings "sweeps" period, Couric's average of 7.6 million viewers was 6 percent down from what Bob Schieffer recorded in February 2006.
More troubling to many who watched it was the newscast's apparent confusion in direction, driving viewers away from an anchor given a multi-million dollar commitment to jump from NBC's "Today" show.
CBS' shift comes less than a week after NBC News announced that the executive producer of "Nightly News," John Reiss, was leaving. Longtime ratings leader NBC and anchor Brian Williams have been sliding in the ratings as ABC's "World News" with Charles Gibson has won for three of the past four weeks.
(Excerpt) Read more at tv.msn.com ...
Katie is a Two TON ROCK around CBS's neck!! They can't get rid of her and she's bringing them down...SCHADENFREUDE!
Its not just that she is a leftie partisan. She lacks.. err..well , how shall we say, .. whats the right word.. aah. yes.. GRAVITAS.
Katie Couric comes across as an airhead (which she is) who is trying to sound serious by keep her voice low and speaking slowly.
Katie reading the news carries on slightly more weight than Britney or Paris reading the news.
...then bring in Klinton butt-boy Kaplan. First off, the guy has been an absolute failure everywhere he has been employed (CNN, MSNBC et al) and has been FIRED from all of them. It will be impossible to cover up the fact that this assclown is an uber tree-huggin panty-waisted lib turd with his connections to Bubba. It's laughable I tell you.
It wouldn't matter if they fired Couric. Network evening news is dead. Nobody cares.
Why not just fire the REAL problem - ole Katie?
on = only.
What????? why I'm shocked!!! I thought Katie was gonna save the network and the world. Hmmmm, must have been wrong. Of course, it's everyone else's fault.
This will fix ALL of CBS News' problems! Come back, former viewers!
This is a move to the extreme left, even more than it is now. Kaplan is responsible for the union based hit job on Food Lion in the 90s, for the "tailwind" fraudulent story about our troops gassing the enemy in Vietnam, and other atrocities of "journalism".
"Yeah, like it's the producer's fault..."
isn't that just typical? fire the lower guy and leave the big loser in place.
Yep he's done wonders to both former networks!
Um, CBS News's former viewers are six feet under, and the current viewers ain't getting any younger.
SHAKEDOWN: CLINTON CALLED MOONVES IN MILLION DOLLAR SITCOM DISPUTE!
I just bet if CBS had kept him, they would be on top now.
The idiot network is trying to stop the hemorrhage of viewers by tilting farther left. Yep, that should work /s.
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