Leslie Moonves, CBS chief executive, on Tuesday suggested that sexist attitudes were partly to blame for the faltering performance of Katie Couric, the news anchor he recruited to the network with a $15m annual pay package.
“I’m sort of surprised by the vitriol against her. The number of people who don’t want news from a woman was startling,” Mr Moonves said of the audience’s reaction to Ms Couric, who this month brought ratings for the CBS Evening News to a 20-year low.
He reiterated, however, that he was committed to Ms Couric and that he believed her programme would succeed in spite of its last place standing behind rivals ABC and NBC….
In the absence of specific research, some analysts took issue with that argument. “People get news from women all the time ”“ on local news, on morning shows. I’m sceptical of his discovery of sexism,” said Andrew Tyndall, whose Tyndall Report monitors newscasts. He and others have criticised the style of Ms Couric’s newscast, which emphasised soft features over hard news ”“ something CBS seemed to acknowledge this year when it replaced the producer.
Is it so difficult to understand that it isn’t a matter of “getting news from a woman,” or even of electing a woman to the presidency of the United States. The issue is the particular woman in question. Whether Katie Couric is a man or a woman is not the relevant point. Her problem is that she is Katie Couric.
Duh, give us the facts in 15 minutes, not your opinions in 1 hr. Of course then we could reach our own conclusions but you don’t think we are smart enough to do that so we will continue to turn you off.
Even if the sexism is claim true… CBS is not going to raise the rating by whining about it. Government services there has to be fairness via the law, but I don’t purchase many Revlon products … the free market is the free market.
If Leslie Moonves really wanted to strike a blow against sexism, he could have CBS — in selecting TV news personalities — put more weight on journalistic ability and less on good looks.
Rubbish. I remember when Paula Zahn filled in for anchors on one news program. Thought she did an outstanding job. And I wondered why she did not do that more often.
As Fr Philips says, The problem is not that she is a woman. (I would happily vote for a woman for president – if I liked her character and policies. I have voted for women for other offices – Senate, House, Governor – just not president.)
All the big 3 network news departments have the same problem: a fractioning market and a shrinking demographic. It’s really not even aging Baby Boomers who still watch network news; it’s their parents.
I grew up watching Walter Cronkite, who managed to hide his liberal bias pretty well when anchoring the evening news. But I dumped CBS many years ago when Dan *Courage* Blather could not contain himself from editorializing. Perky Katie is just a natural progression for this dinosaur news org. Sexism? Gimme a break.
This is typical liberal pablum. In this case, Moonves can’t turn to racism, so he turns to sexism. Instead of taking responsibility for the irresponsible hiring of a person, who had proven on the Today Show that she was not an objective newsperson, he pulls out a red herring of sexism. Very lame. But if you recall, the HOB did the same thing some time ago, when it pulled out racism and the importance of sensitivity training prior to the Dromatine meeting, in an attempt to change the subject. It’s an old liberal trick that we should not fall for.
Earth to Les: who rescued GMA from its poor ratings? Diane Sawyer. Last I checked, Diane was a female.
#9 Diane Sawyer is one of my favorite journalists, and I’m convinced she’d make a fine evening news anchor (though I also really like Charlie Gibson). But I do wonder if there is just a teensy bit of a real issue. This is wartime. I wonder if there are some folks who really don’t want to get war news from a woman. GMA is a morning show, not the nightly news. Not sure that in comparing GMA with the CBS Nightly News that you’re comparing apples & apples. Katie had great ratings on Today if I recall correctly.
But, I’m not really very qualified to comment on this from overseas. I see the US News shows for 1 month a year, if that, when in the US on leave. And I’ve been pretty much an ABC viewer (along with various cable channels) for years. So I can’t speak from any personal experience about Katie’s journalistic capabilities or “gravitas.” I just know what I’ve read in some of the transcripts of interviews she’s done where it seems she displays some very pronounced biases.
#8, Bishop Frade’s sermon which was posted on T19 yesterday proves your example about ECUSA in spades!! An incredible case of making unfounded charges about racism without a smidgeon of data!
Katie Couric is not even on my radar; in fact, I had forgotten she was the CBS anchor. I haven’t watched CBS News in years. I thought Dan Rather was a blow-dried elitist from the get-go, so when Uncle Walter retired, that was that. And since CBS didn’t have the integrity to fire Rather when we learned he had none (integrity, that is), I won’t watch their news shows. Come to think of it, I don’t remember the last time I watched anything on CBS.
I’ve never watched her (I get my news from Yahoo, LifeSite, and Drudge). Is she actually dumb, or too liberal? Is she any good? Is she really good looking?
Hmmnnn…. Does the fact that I get my news on the internet mean anything to a TV producer??? :^>
In faith, Dave
Viva Texas
I haven’t watched an evening news broadcast in six years. Most people are like me, and that is network news’s fundamental problem. I don’t know the average age for viewers of these broadcasts but I imagine it’s in the 60’s. There are more elderly women than elderly men, and Couric probably tested well with that demographic. In trying to expand their audience, they are probably driving away the core demographic so Couric’s numbers are bad.
“We will blame anything and anyone except ourselves and our reporters and our bias for the decline in ratings. R’ight winger talk radio’ and ‘sexism’ sound good to us. And we are sticking with that.”
Imaginary CBS press release.