Free Republic

In an appearance today on "Imus in the Morning," Andy Rooney quickly turned down the temperature in the CBS newsroom. Don Imus: "So what do you think of these changes at CBS News?" Andy Rooney: "I’m not enthusiastic about it. I think everybody likes Katie Couric, I mean how can you not like Katie Couric. But, I don’t know anybody at CBS News who is pleased that she’s coming here."

Katie Couric’s politics "are apparently even further to the Left and more partisan Democratic than Dan Rather’s,” commentator Lowell Ponte writes. "For this reason, she is unlikely to restore CBS’s credibility or redeem CBS’s well-deserved reputation for left-wing bias.” If Couric’s previous work is any indication, she could bring to CBS not only her liberal bias but also her penchant for making potentially inflammatory comments. In November 1997, Couric asked a jilted bride on "Today”: "Have you considered castration as an option?” Critics noted that if any male interviewer had even jokingly proposed sexually mutilating a woman, he would have...

CBS EVENING NEWS Katie Couric announced this morning that she is leaving NBC's Today show to become the evening new anchor for CBS. Will you be more or less likely to watch CBS Evening News with Katie Couric? More likely Less Likely To take poll click here

Readers across the country woke up this morning to prominently placed stories in the Washington Post, New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer and New York Daily News, among others, announcing the “breaking” news -- yet again -- that Katie Couric is likely to leave NBC's Today in order to take the news anchor job at CBS. But that's not really news. For the past several weeks, every move, every offer, every sneeze by any of the parties involved has been leaked (usually anonymously) to the press, which has chronicled the story with the sort of gusto...

by Mark Finkelstein April 5, 2006 Playing the straight man to perfection, Matt Lauer kicked off the second half-hour of this morning's Today show by asking Katie Couric: "Anything new?" In responding, Couric made official what she acknowledged was "the worst kept secret in America": that after 15 years she was leaving Today to go to the CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes. Here, for posterity, was the opening line of Couric's announcement: "I wanted to tell all of you out there who have watched the show for the past 15 years that after listening to my heart and my...

“Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues.” – Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics Hello, global warming. Goodbye, journalistic ethics. The newest Time magazine/ABC News poll showed about two-thirds of Americans still believe there’s a debate about global warming, despite the media’s best efforts to convince them otherwise. Americans now face an onslaught of one-sided global warming coverage that downplays...

“Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues.” – Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics Hello, global warming. Goodbye, journalistic ethics. The newest Time magazine/ABC News poll showed about two-thirds of Americans still believe there’s a debate about global warming, despite the media’s best efforts to convince them otherwise. Americans now face an onslaught of one-sided global warming coverage that downplays...

Howard Kurtz of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” (hat tip to Crooks and Liars) spent a lot of time Sunday addressing the firestorm started this week by radio host Laura Ingraham over negative media reports out of Iraq. One of Kurtz’s guests was Lara Logan of CBS who was clearly not pleased with these assertions. In fact, Logan, reporting from Iraq, appeared rather defensive (video link to follow).

In this case it exposed the problems inherent in the CBS poll finding Bush at a very low 34 percent approval.....Polls are among the most telling expressions of bias in the media. They are very often agenda-driven, used to make a political point, or to pile on a favorite target. The most controversial and flawed poll that has been most cited in recent weeks has been the CBS News poll finding that President Bush's approval rating was down to 34%. Another poll, purporting to find that U.S. troops are weary of the Iraq War or want a premature withdrawal, is...

The scientist touted by CBS News' "60 Minutes" as arguably the "world's leading researcher on global warming" and spotlighted as a victim of Bush administration censorship on the issue publicly endorsed Democrat John Kerry for president and received a $250,000 grant from the charitable foundation headed by Kerry's wife. Scientist James Hansen has also admitted that he contributed to two recent Democratic presidential campaigns. Furthermore, he acted as a consultant in February to former Vice President Al Gore's slide show presentations on "global warming," which Gore presented around the country. But Scott Pelley, the "60 Minutes" reporter who profiled Hansen...

Generally, I'm a 60 Minutes fan, but the opening segment of the March 12 edition of the newsmag was a glaring example of what happens when deals are cut for exclusive access and long-harbored hard feelings get in the way of sound editorial judgment. When this happens, viewers are shortchanged and a venerable franchise's image is tarnished. The 60 Minutes segment I'm referring to centered on Kevin Weeks' just published Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob. I was well-versed in the Bulger saga. Virtually every Monday for the past six years, I've been a...

An Iraqi cameraman working for CBS News when he was wounded and detained by the U.S. military will be tried next month, CBS officials said Wednesday. Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein's trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday, but an Iraqi judge postponed the proceedings until April 5, said Larry Doyle, the CBS bureau chief in Baghdad.

<p>March 21, 2006 -- NBC is relying heavily on its ability to woo "The View" co-host Meredith Vieira away from ABC if Katie Couric jumps to CBS.</p> <p>Options for replacing Katie as host of the "Today" show are not all that many, NBC has discovered recently.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Verizon Communications (VZ) and CBS Corp. (CBS) on Monday said they have reached a retransmission consent and video-on-demand agreement for CBS shows. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal includes analog, digital, multicast and high-definition rights to programming on CBS owned-and-operated television stations; local video-on-demand content from those stations; and CBS Television Network video-on-demand content, including series such as "CSI," "NCIS" and "Survivor." Verizon said it will offer the programming on Verizon FiOS TV, its new fiber-optic TV service, which is now available in parts of seven states

As progressive media critics, we at Media Matters for America start off at something of a disadvantage. Unlike our counterparts on the right, we don’t have one simple answer to every question having to do with the news media. We don’t believe the media are irredeemably “biased,” or that reporters have hidden agendas and we can tell you what they are. What we do believe is that all too often, the American news media fail to serve the public. [snip] We have to grant, however, that the right’s sustained accusation of “bias” is both a powerful organizing tool (sustaining their...

CBS got hammered yesterday with a record $3.6 million in fines for airing a prime-time show that depicted a teen sex orgy. The episode featured scenes of partially dressed teenagers engaged in both couples and group sex. The FCC hit 111 CBS affiliates with a $32,500 fine each for violating decency standards when they aired the 12/31/2004, episode of "Without a Trace," which dealt with the disappearance and possible rape of a high school student. "While there is no nudity, the scene is highly sexually charged and explicit," the FCC said of the show. "Moreover, the material is particularly egregious...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- CBS Inc. (CBS) kicked off its first-ever free live showing online of the men's NCAA tournament, with more than 100,000 people either watching the video of the Seton Hall vs. Wichita game, or in a virtual waiting room, trying to get in. The live video streams were running 365 kilobits per second. Larry Kramer, head of CBS's digital operations, said he's prepared for at least 200,000 simultaneous viewers, placing the tournament Webcasts squarely among the top live online draws of all time.

Former CBS News president says, "If content is king, then connectedness is queen." There are two views of journalism's future in a world in which news can be delivered to consumers in more ways than ever before. The pessimistic school, according to former CBS News president Andrew Heyward, sees the Internet as a tool for fragmentation. Adherents to this view believe that in a world where the consumer only gets the news she wants, society won't be able to get consensus on a broad range of issues. News is going to shrink to fit the small screen of a cell...

Live Webcasts of NCAA tournament is 'watershed' moment By David B. Wilkerson, MarketWatch Last Update: 12:57 AM ET Mar 16, 2006 CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- CBS Corp.'s move to stream live telecasts of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship free of charge on the Web, beginning with this year's tournament, is a "watershed event" with vast implications for the television landscape, according to a former president of CBS Sports. Beginning Thursday, CBS (CBS) will offer live out-of-market broadcasts of "March Madness" games at NCAAsports.com. See related column by Bambi Francisco. "This is a watershed event," said Neal Pilson, president of...

A government crackdown on indecent programming resulted in a proposed fine of $3.6 million against dozens of CBS stations and affiliates on Wednesday - a record penalty from the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC said an episode of the CBS crime drama "Without a Trace" that aired in December 2004 was indecent. It cited the graphic depiction of "teenage boys and girls participating in a sexual orgy." CBS said it strongly disagrees with the FCC's finding. The program "featured an important and socially relevant storyline warning parents to exercise greater supervision of their teenage children. The program was not unduly...