CBS getting nervous about Couric ratings and Free Speech Segment

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/

Couric's Decline "Has Provoked A Strong Sense Of Unease Internally"
The falloff of Katie Couric's audience since her CBS Evening News debut "has provoked a strong sense of unease internally, according to newsroom employees. Many are alarmed that the program isn't faring better, especially after a massive marketing push this summer that included radio spots and bus ads," Matea Gold reports.

More: "Some of the staff have privately expressed concerns about changes to the broadcast, particularly a segment called 'Free Speech,' a platform for opinions from around the country."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-evening11oct11,0,1370802.story

<snip>

Some of the staff have privately expressed concerns about changes to the broadcast, particularly a segment called "Free Speech," a platform for opinions from around the country.

Last week, executive producer Rome Hartman received strong protests from the newsroom after airing a commentary by Brian Rohrbough, the father of a student slain at Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999. In addressing recent school shootings in Colorado and Pennsylvania, Rohrbough said the public schools have taught students in a "moral vacuum" by emphasizing evolution and keeping religion out of the classroom.

Critics complained the opinion piece was not relevant to the current tragedies, especially since the most recent shooting happened at an Amish school.

Hartman, who said he was surprised by the topic Rohrbough chose to address, said he nevertheless didn't believe it would have been "in keeping with the spirit of the segment" to ask him to change the piece.

The executive producer called the feedback from newsroom employees "a very healthy conversation." Although the intense scrutiny of the broadcast's performance is "a little bit distracting" for staffers, Hartman said, the mood internally was upbeat. "It's a little frustrating that people treat what is our beginning as if it was some kind of end. These things take a long time to change."

And so is the new Nightline. They're cheapening and softening news reporting.

It has been non-stop school shooting stories lately. With as much that has been going on in the world lately (Iraq, Iran, Foley, Habius Corpus, North Korea, Foely, etc.), they do a week in PA. Even as ABC World News was breaking the Foley scandal, they were hardly touching it.

Katie's perky ass back to the Morning Show...

:eyes:

:D

on next week should be the last straw!

wing nuts jabber like magpies about whatever comes into their head is bad for ratings. Who knew?

So we can see crowds milling around with signs wishing their grandparents happy 50th anniversary and such shit. And she needs a pleasantly plump weatherman to engage in half-witty repartee with her. Watch the ratings skyrocket.

and that was the last time I tuned in to CBS Evening news.

I figured that if she has Rush on, eventually maybe that "God Hates Fags" guys would be on or the Grand Wizard of the KKK.

Where do they draw the line on what kind of sleazoid gets a platform to puke their message?

Once you start screening and blocking liberal and moderate voices, and then lie about it, you lose all claim of being an objective news organization.

'Lil Katie is an utter failure, no matter how they thin her photo out to make her anorexic looking.

It's propaganda.

CBS and little evil elf maiden need to get their sh*( together.

:applause: :thumbsup: :rofl:

Katie had her chances in making changes which would pull the news network up in the ratings. So what did she do?

SHe turned what could be serious interviews into segments from Entertainment Tonight. She highlighted rightwing conservative guests in her 'free speech' spots, and did not challenge them in any way.

She has taken no chances by pushing for answers and challenging those who are obviously using their air time to promote their agenda.

She needs to grow a spine, callenge the powers that be to justify their actions and positions, rediscover what it means to be a reporter with journalistic integrity. If she does not, she will find herself counting her money --while sitting at home watching someone else do her current job.

when they got their new Republican news director. The focus shifted to celebrity gossip and sensational crime stories. The conservatives' goal is accomplished if the public remain in ignorance.

A free speech segment (whatever that is) should be more "person in the street". Limbaugh's drivel spews out all over the country and the assfart is a millionaire for it. His views are overrepresented if anything.

on religion and give him a list of "acceptable" topics? I hope Couric goes down in flames!

give a free speech segment?

His columns are excellent.

Nope, never mind.


Been there. Done that.

Diet Coke, nostrils, you get the picture.

It is too much of a wild card and unpredictable.

Also I see the "retired" Schaeffer out talking truth about the repubs. I don't think the fascists are going to like that.

"Madame Secretary is it hard to have a social life for someone in your position-I mean how do you call up the secretary of state and ask for a date?"

"Mr.President you are known for the strongness of your beliefs".......

Blah blah blah....

x(

Give me a mother fucking break.

Is Couric on the evening news the modern version of the opening of the 7th Seal or what?

"the Today Show", still am, (if watching on the fly to work counts) and I never minded Katie much. I felt sure she could rise to the occasion of nighttime anchor...but I think the new format STINKS. I watched (or tried to) the first week, but now I'm gone. Such a shame. Why can't they just keep it the news?

inevitable result once you start requiring ratings from the news department.

I loved Walter...and even Dan till he started taking himself so seriously..

and turned off potential viewers right off the bat.. but still it's gone down hill since from what I've read on Media Matters. Balance, what balance?

That set the theme as far as I was concerned.

I figured I'd wait a week or two until she settled into her grove and then I would check out the news. But as soon as I heard Rush Limbaugh was a guest on the show, I immediately decided that I couldn't be bothered with that show.

I respect 'Free Speech' but Limbaugh's 'Free Speech' is nothing more than made-up facts pulled out of his ass and manipulated to feed the rabid idiots that listen to his show and expect that kind of sensationalism. I would have had more respect had she picked a more mainstream right-wing journalist then a bottom-dweller like Limbaugh

Her first intro in the 70's

I vowed never to watch her...and I haven't.
Not even for a second.

She can circle the drain for all I care.

bought out her contract, put Shiffer(sp?) back in, return to the original news format and drop the featury segments that their ratings went straight back up?
No way in hell would tehy do that, too expensive, but I betcha dollars to donuts the ratings would go back up

Whodathunkit?

which is what Couric has done with the so-called Free Speech segment.

If you really want to have that segment, how about some new voices.

America is sick of the corporate Faux propagandist demagogues already.

:kick:

Bill Maher was asked to do a segment, and they asked him what he wanted to talk about. He said he wanted to talk about religion, so they said no and faxed him a list of things he couldn't talk about.

He said that was the deal breaker and told them to forget about the segment arguing that that is not free speech but censorship instead.

...why the fuck did CBS have to pick an entertainer for that job. It was just downright insultive and a month later CBS is learning that 'Perkified' News isn't necessarily what the people want. Katie Couric has set us women back a few decades with her debacle

Most people watch the news to hear news, not propaganda and fluff. Those people watch Fox.

I thought. We don't need another Fox.

....liberals don't mind being questioned about their decisions and perceptions, as long as they know it is to get to the truth. You cannot put Republicans with an agenda on your show, highlight them as guardians of the constitution, and give them a free pass by not asking any questions to get to the real truth.

It is a news business, and it takes journalistic integrity to get it and report it. It is not Entertainment Tonight where all you have to do is put a camera on a Celebrity and let them blather on about nothing consequential.

To attract the... what do their leaders call them... oh yeah...
Right wing religious wackos.

Fox has convinced all media outlets that if there is no right wing propagandist bias, that it won't sell.

Even many of her fans know it.

WTF were they thinking?

3-5 minutes five nights a week that doesn't have to be filled with news. No journalists, no foreign bureaus, no stringers, no camera crews.

Just 3-5 big, fat, beautiful minutes that a million and one jabbering heads and Beltway "realists" are happy to fill with their bloviating bullshit, and most of them would probably pay to be on the slot.

3-5 lovely cost-free minutes that look good on the quarterly statement and make the CFO look really smart.

Until, of course, people stop watching, ratings collapse and the Cute Golden Girl starts to look less and less like a managing editor and more and more like the perky morning celebrity dysfunction interview hostess she's always been.

maybe that could 'help' him save his current job...

as a news reporter.

Couric allowed soft approach to Rice when she should have come out swinging - Come to thinl of it? - that's CBS's problem, at a time when this country is starving for someone to nail the bastards to the wall, they come up with a soft n cushie Katie Coric to watch and why should this come as disappointing guyz?? --> get a clue

"New" Coke..

just sayin'

Poor CBS, can't come out and admit it. I saw her on 60 minutes and laughed my ass off. Sorry CBS, you got a loser on your hands. At least you guys are 10 better than any other news channel.

Buck up Katy, everyone thinks you suck. It could be worse, you could work for Foxnews! :rofl:

The majority of people have figured out that they've been had, they don't want to watch someone who is part of the problem, not the solution, and they don't want to watch propaganda anymore, even if it is perky propaganda.

Earth to Katie, you suck.

I am not a Katie-basher. This is just advice:

SIT DOWN behind the blankety-blank DESK!!1 and READ the blankety-blank TelePrompter!!!111

Also, part of the BIG TIME ANCHOR deal-ly is to DO some personal REPORTING, like Peter, over at the Green Zone, or in a BURKA/trenchcoat!!!!!!!1

Does it take some 5 figure salary for you to recognize THE OBVIOUSNESS of this blankety blank advice ????????

the Evening News, I have no reason NOT to switch to NBC.

It's a comedy show, right? :eyes:

Personally I'm relieved that America isn't buying the new tool and format. I watched it once--first day. I know it was unlikely, but I'd hoped she might "rise" to the occaision. Instead she dragged it down. Insulting to viewers seeking NEWS.

Sorry CBS. You took two steps backwards, when are you going to take one forward?

to "Rathergate." It's typical--the corporate media fear the Wrath of the Wingnuts more than anything, even declining ratings. Rather than be accused of insufficient rightwing bias, they'll debase even their holy of holies (i.e., the evening news), their only remaining claim to anything resembling seriousness and substance. But hey, I thought they jumped the shark when they went with Dan Rather as anchor.

If CBS really wanted a hit, they should have taken the Bush-colored glasses off.

when she couldn't understand how the Abramoff scandal was totally a Republican issue since they drove Dems out of the lobbying process all together when they took the majority.

emdee

"Free Speech Segment"...Just people like the pigman Limbaugh and the like...Even a moderate to left person like Bill Maher, they wouldn't let on...Where's the free speech for the majority of Americans, the majority of Americans are liberal!

I'll never watch any of those right-wing news shows... CBS with republican kiss ass Couric, NBC with the idiot Brian Williams and certainly not ABC with their neocon Charles Gibson.

NT!

propaganda laced with christian moral hypocrisy. They are JUST SAYING NO-HELL NO! :puke:

What's so hard about that to understand for CBS and Couric?! :eyes:

to the point of feeling as queezy as the viewers they're trying to shovel this slop to.

"Free Speech" --what a joke. Another surreal offering to the masses by Big Media...propaganda disguised as programming. The producers must be pretty clueless if they think the average rabid rightwing stiff is their target viewer.

Makes you wonder how they do their marketing, or if they're so arrogant they don't bother.

A lot of times that translates into a male figure, but there are plenty of women with an aura of respect and authority that could have easily garnered way more viewers than Couric. For instance, someone LIKE Barbara Walters (I think Walters should retire and is no longer qualified to be on TV News), or Diane Sawyer.

not to talk about it

All the shooters were all scientists or people really into scientific research.