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http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-06-12/#tv1Rather Vs. Couric In what might have appeared to some of his former colleagues as a case of public schadenfreude, Dan Rather has attributed the declining ratings of the CBS Evening News under his successor, Katie Couric, to an attempt by network management "to bring the Today ethos to the evening news and to dumb it down, tart it up, in hopes of attracting a younger audience." During a telephone interview on MSNBC Monday, Rather insisted that "I have nothing against Katie Couric," who he said was "a very nice person." But he suggested, she may have bit off more than she could chew by trying "to change networks, which is always difficult, and change the program at the same time." He suggested that she is relying too heavily on celebrity coverage while at the same time shying away from coverage of the war in Iraq, which he called "a strategic catastrophe of historic proportions." In response, CBS chief Les Moonves today (Tuesday) called Rather's comments "sexist" and "a cheap shot." In a speech at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications, Moonves said that he was "surprised at the vitriol that has come out against" Couric and said that it was essential that the network find a way to attract younger viewers to its news broadcast.
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