I don't usually venture out into politics and the like, but found this swipe by Dan Rather about Katie Couric kind of interesting, in a weird, hypocritical, nutsy kind of way.
When I was in grade school, just after Vietnam, I had to write a report, if I remember correctly, on a person in the news. Well, I did that one better and wrote a report on the newsman himself, Dan Rather. I was young, very young, and Dan Rather was who I saw on TV each night. As I got older, I was able to see him for what he is, warts and all. It wasn't until recently that he really sullied himself and left CBS with his tail between his legs. Now, he's sniping at Katie Couric. Not that I'm a fan of Katie's...no, no, no. I couldn't stand to watch the Today show, mostly because of Bryant Gumble, but once he left I realized I wasn't a fan of Katie's either.
A quote from the article, "Rather attacks Couric 'Dumb it down, Tart it up'."
As already noted on NewsBusters, former CBS anchor Dan Rather appeared on Monday’s edition of "Morning Joe" and lobbied for a "a strategic withdrawal from Iraq." He also found time to twice bash his "Evening News" successor Katie Couric for dumbing down and "tarting up" the news. After giving the standard caveat that Couric is a "nice person," he went in for kill. Speculating on the program’s declining ratings, Rather complained to MSNBC host Joe Scarborough that "the mistake was to try to bring the ‘Today’ ethos to the evening news and to dumb it down, tart it up in hopes of attracting a younger audience."
Dan might not have "tarted" things up, but he dumbed things down himself by further disgracing the already questionable enterprise of TV news. The decline at CBS might be the legacy Couric inherited from Rather. Despite all his left leanings, I kind of always rooted for Dan Rather. I would watch him instead of Brokaw or Jennings just because I had done that report ages ago. However, in the end, I couldn't stomach him anymore and turned to Jennings before just turning off the national news altogether.
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1 comment:
I was going to post on this too. Yeah, Dan rather wasn't much better. I think Couric was good on Today - but not the best anchor. I watched her the other night and I think her handlers are getting her to do a better job however. Her intent was to fluff up the news when she took over, now I think she's getting more serious. The news is dumb however - 2 minute segments and lots of celebrity stuff.
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