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How did the CBS Evening News explain away the much-smaller size of pro-immigration rallies around the country today? Fear and intimidation on the part of prospective participants. But fear of what? Physical threats or illegal reprisals? No. Of simple enforcement of US law. CBS singled out for praise one marcher who wouldn't be "intimidated." CBS correspondent Sandra Hughes narrated the segment, which included these morsels. View video here.

As if Katie Couric didn't already have enough problems. Weighed down by record-low ratings at the anchor desk of "CBS Evening News," and by reports suggesting she will leave that post two years before her multimillion-dollar contract expires, Couric now has civil rights groups — mostly Hispanic — on her back. And for good reason.

As if Katie Couric didn’t already have enough problems. Weighed down by record-low ratings at the anchor desk of “CBS Evening News,” and by reports suggesting she will leave that post two years before her multimillion-dollar contract expires, Couric now has civil rights groups — mostly Hispanic — on her back. And for good reason. The CBS newscast that carries her name recently aired a one-sided and inaccurate report about illegal immigrant women who give birth to their children in the United States. The news story challenged the broader constitutional law of birthright citizenship and stated — without providing the...

For the second week in a row, “The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” has notched record low ratings. The newscast dropped some 50,000 viewers to average 5.34 million total viewers for the week of April 21, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. “Evening News” had averaged 5.39 million viewers the previous week. Finishing first in the broadcast network flagship news race for the week was “The NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams” with 8.01 million total viewers. ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson” averaged 7.79 million viewers, a quick rebound of some 280,000 from 7.51 million viewers the...

To judge by the ads, the most loyal adherents to CBS' quasi-journalistic programming are impotent and incontinent. It so happens that they share these afflictions with the network's actual news division. Katie Couric is reportedly itching to bolt her gig as the anchor of broadcast TV's worst-rated evening newscast. Last month, Shelley Ross lost her job producing The Early Show, the worst-rated morning newscast, after problems concerning temper tantrums and tequila parties. Most weeks, the perfectly decent Bob Schieffer, who will retire after the 2009 inauguration, sees Face the Nation to a finish as the third-rated Sunday show. And the...

To judge by the ads, the most loyal adherents to CBS' quasi-journalistic programming are impotent and incontinent. It so happens that they share these afflictions with the network's actual news division. Katie Couric is reportedly itching to bolt her gig as the anchor of broadcast TV's worst-rated evening newscast. Last month, Shelley Ross lost her job producing The Early Show, the worst-rated morning newscast, after problems concerning temper tantrums and tequila parties. Most weeks, the perfectly decent Bob Schieffer, who will retire after the 2009 inauguration, sees Face the Nation to a finish as the third-rated Sunday show. And the...

One week after media reports cast doubts about Katie Couric’s future on the “CBS Evening News,” the third-place broadcast set a new record low for viewership. The “CBS Evening News” attracted an average of 5.39 million viewers last week, placing the newscast more than two million viewers behind the second-place “World News with Charles Gibson” on ABC (7.51 million). The “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” ranked No. 1 for the week with 8.17 million viewers. While the network nightly newscasts have posted audience declines for more than two decades, a new record low for the “Evening News” will likely...

Katie Couric just can't catch a break. The CBS News anchor was looking forward to moderating a Democratic presidential candidate debate in North Carolina on Sunday, an event network executives hoped would spotlight something other than a recent spate of stories suggesting Couric may leave her post in the coming year. But without a commitment from Sen. Barack Obama that he would participate, the North Carolina Democratic Party canceled the tentatively scheduled forum today because of “time constraints and logistical issues associated with such a large, national event,” according to a statement on the party’s website. The party had gotten...

CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves gave his embattled anchor and her news division a vote of confidence yesterday, telling a staff meeting that Katie Couric "is my anchor today, tomorrow and in the future." But the public display does not change the reality that Couric is likely to relinquish the anchor chair after the election, according to two top network executives who declined to be named discussing a private meeting. Moonves asked to address the Friday staff meeting, held at the CBS News offices in New York and broadcast to network bureaus around the world, out of concern that Couric...

So just how badly is Katie Couric doing ratings-wise, anyhow? That seems to be the big question following word last week that the “CBS Evening News” anchor would be eased out following the presidential election. The answer is pretty bad. Couric has seen viewer declines in just about every category except for median age, where “Evening News” has grown slightly older. That’s the one place CBS wasn’t looking to rise. While ABC and NBC have seen modest declines this year among total viewers and adults 25-54, Couric is down by double digits in each, after seeing double-digit declines last year...

Douglas Feith has been much maligned by Iraq war opponents. In advance of his book release last Tuesday, 60 Minutes ran an interview with Feith, one of the architects of the Iraq War, last Sunday. I was at a weekend festival and missed it; but thanks to the wonders of the internet as well as CBS 60 Minutes now making their video archives embeddable, here is the interview: **Video on site** This is the only time that I can recall 60 Minutes conducting a book-release interview that was not by an anti-Administration author or by someone who appears to be...

Why is Barack Obama so comfortable around people who so despise America and its allies? Maybe it’s because they’re so comfortable around him. He presents as the transcendent agent of “change.” Sounds platitudinous, but it’s really quite strategically vaporous. Sen. Obama is loath to get into the details of how we should change, and, as the media’s Chosen One, he hasn’t had to.

Katie Couric may be the least of Leslie Moonves’s worries. While the fate of Ms. Couric and the “CBS Evening News” is in the headlines, the entire CBS News division represents only a fraction of the CBS broadcast network’s revenue. More perplexing is the prime-time schedule, where no new hit has emerged this year, and as a result, CBS is likely to lose the crown of most-watched network to the Fox network. And there are concerns over other parts of the CBS Corporation. The radio division is lagging. Pressure to make a digital acquisition is intensifying. Advertising revenue is softening....

Well I just got done watching The Lords Boot Camp On CBS. CBS put together a panel of teens from different religions to discuss the special. In the video below the teens say they think this Christian Camp is equivalent to Al Qaeda training camps. One of them says "Radical Christianity can be just as bad as Muslimism" He sounds very educated about "Muslimism" VIDEO IN BLOG POSTYou can watch the rest of these ridiculous videos HERE

If a journalism class of the future is asked to identify low points in the vaunted history of CBS News, it might do well to examine the second week of April 2008. Hours after word seeped out that CBS News and Katie Couric, the fresh face who was supposed to restore it to greatness, had discussed ending her contract more than two years early, a New York State judge ruled on Thursday that Dan Rather, the now craggy face who was synonymous with the CBS eye for a generation, could continue to pursue a lawsuit against his former employer. Only...

A wide-ranging discussion in February about Katie Couric’s future as the anchor of the “CBS Evening News” threatened on Thursday to turn her into a virtual lame duck in the job. The discussion took place in New York on Feb. 28 and involved four people: Ms. Couric; her agent, Alan Berger of the Creative Artists Agency; Sean McManus, the president of CBS News; and Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS. The meeting took place in Mr. Moonves’s office. The conversation included what one participant said was some “idle talk and musings” about the big question hanging over CBS News: should...

The problem with CBS and Katie Couric is not that the show isn't working. CBS Evening News is a mother on life support and Katie was just stillborn. She never had a chance. Ever since CBS lied about the Bush National Guard story, it has as much credibility as, well....a major news network that makes up news. Small disconnect in that strategy but overcomeable with time except for the fact that CBS, ABC, and NBC are running out of time. All three of the major networks have been losing evening news viewers for the past 10 years in a major...

Breaking: The judge in Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS has issued a motion to dismiss most of the case. CBS News confirms. Developing... > More: TVNewser has learned most of issues of the lawsuit have been dismissed. What remains is the contract dispute: whether Rather was utilized appropriately in the remaining months of his deal as a correspondent on 60 Minutes. Jim Quinn, lead counsel for CBS tells TVNewser, "We're thrilled with the results. The core of the allegations of fraud and fair dealing have been thrown out. What's left is a garden variety contract dispute." In the meantime, the...

CBS, Couric Likely to Split By REBECCA DANA April 9, 2008 7:44 p.m. After two years of record-low ratings, both CBS News executives and people close to Katie Couric say that the "CBS Evening News" anchor is likely to leave the network well before her contract expires in 2011 -- possibly soon after the presidential inauguration early next year. Ms. Couric isn't even halfway through her five-year contract with CBS, which began in June 2006 and pays an annual salary of around $15 million. But CBS executives are under pressure to cut costs and improve ratings for the broadcast, which...

After two years of record-low ratings, both CBS News executives and people close to Katie Couric say that the "CBS Evening News" anchor is likely to leave the network well before her contract expires in 2011 -- possibly soon after the presidential inauguration early next year.