Wednesday, April 5, 2006
BigTime TeeVee
BigTime TeeVee has announced that the brittle Katie Couric will replace gentleman Bob Schieffer at CBS Evening News and it is further speculated that Couric’s slot at CBS’ morning Today show will be filled by the oily Meredith Vieira. This is important because it is important to the networks. It is particularly important to CBS, which has been in the ratings cellar and is desperate. Twenty-two minutes of formula writing and received notions as to what is newsworthy delivered with the deep caring that anchors are noted for — usually translating into a paternalistic (soon to be maternalistic) drawn out syllable at the end of a manipulative “touching story”. Schieffer was really good, I’ll be sorry to see him go; many agreed, he bumped viewer-ship in the short time he was there. These human logos for huge corporations, which is what the anchors are, devolve in their real world significance, to what the English call them: news readers.