Katie Couric
So I'm back later than promised. It seems that even a brief break from being able to blog really cripples one's motivation to write. I'm back, however, and writing about something I almost feel bad writing about, as it's been discussed and dissected ad nauseum already.
Katie Couric's first broadcast as anchor of CBS' Nightly News.
Most news stories echo what The New York Times reported this morning: For the New Face of CBS News, a Subdued Beginning. Many columnists, both online and off, looked at Couric's debut with boredom and disdain. For me, I saw something different, or at least the promise of difference to come.
The show is trying to do something different. I really got the feeling that hte producers of the show, and Couric herself, really care about the program they were putting on television. No, it's not anything like the so-called "heyday" of TV news exemplified by Murrow, Cronkite, or others, nor is the show anything like what Brian Williams and Charles Gibson deliver any night. And it's got nothing to do with the host's gender or celebrity. The new CBS Evening News is unique, because it is aware of the climate of news in 2006.
When Cronkite was on the news, his only competition was the newspapers, who were at a severe disadvatage because of the technological constrictions on keeping news current. Katie Couric finds herself competing against bloggers, the New York Times online, BBC World News online, the highly-rated talking heads of cable news, Jon Stewart, and the overwhelming deluge of information. What I liked about Katie's first broadcast was that the show was trying to carve it's own place out in the new world of hyperinformational access, while still trying to maintain what made nightly news so captivating in the first place.
One of the complaints I saw often was how the broadcast featured a fewer number of newsstories than CBS broadcasts of the past. I don't understand why this is bad - statistics show that people aren't getting their "news" from 6:30 broadcasts anymore. The show instead, and I think brilliantly, decided to give airtime to things that would be best presented through the television medium: an undercover reporter in Aphganistan, Bush making a speech (and you have to really watch the man talk to truly understand what an idiot he is - it cannot be properly communicated through print or even audio alone), and yes, even the first images of the Cruise/Holmes baby. Couric played to her strengths gained from years on the today show, during a lengthy (for a 30 minute newscast) interview with a Bush chronicaler from the NY Times.
The show has aired once, but I feel confident in saying that this show leans left on its reporting on the news. Not left like Michael Moore, but left like the beforementioned Times and the Washington Post. The most compelling new feature is entitled "freeSpeech," giving luminaries and unknowns a forum to speak their mind on whatever they want (though I am admittedly skeptical of the balls of the producers on this one, but it's hard not to be interested in the concept). The first guess was Fastfood Nation/30 Days creator Morgan Spurlock, in a thinly vieled speech blasting the way cable news talking heads polarize and simplify the American people. In a time when the most pressing debate is personal safety vs. personal freedoms, I could not help but feel that the inclusion of this segment is an oh-so-subtle nod to those of us on the freedom side.
All in all, I was impressed by the broadcast. I'll be sure to tune in the rest of this week, as GW Bush, Bill Clinton, and Rush Limbaugh are all scheduled to appear. For my money, I would reccomend you do the same.
Katie Couric's first broadcast as anchor of CBS' Nightly News.
Most news stories echo what The New York Times reported this morning: For the New Face of CBS News, a Subdued Beginning. Many columnists, both online and off, looked at Couric's debut with boredom and disdain. For me, I saw something different, or at least the promise of difference to come.
The show is trying to do something different. I really got the feeling that hte producers of the show, and Couric herself, really care about the program they were putting on television. No, it's not anything like the so-called "heyday" of TV news exemplified by Murrow, Cronkite, or others, nor is the show anything like what Brian Williams and Charles Gibson deliver any night. And it's got nothing to do with the host's gender or celebrity. The new CBS Evening News is unique, because it is aware of the climate of news in 2006.
When Cronkite was on the news, his only competition was the newspapers, who were at a severe disadvatage because of the technological constrictions on keeping news current. Katie Couric finds herself competing against bloggers, the New York Times online, BBC World News online, the highly-rated talking heads of cable news, Jon Stewart, and the overwhelming deluge of information. What I liked about Katie's first broadcast was that the show was trying to carve it's own place out in the new world of hyperinformational access, while still trying to maintain what made nightly news so captivating in the first place.
One of the complaints I saw often was how the broadcast featured a fewer number of newsstories than CBS broadcasts of the past. I don't understand why this is bad - statistics show that people aren't getting their "news" from 6:30 broadcasts anymore. The show instead, and I think brilliantly, decided to give airtime to things that would be best presented through the television medium: an undercover reporter in Aphganistan, Bush making a speech (and you have to really watch the man talk to truly understand what an idiot he is - it cannot be properly communicated through print or even audio alone), and yes, even the first images of the Cruise/Holmes baby. Couric played to her strengths gained from years on the today show, during a lengthy (for a 30 minute newscast) interview with a Bush chronicaler from the NY Times.
The show has aired once, but I feel confident in saying that this show leans left on its reporting on the news. Not left like Michael Moore, but left like the beforementioned Times and the Washington Post. The most compelling new feature is entitled "freeSpeech," giving luminaries and unknowns a forum to speak their mind on whatever they want (though I am admittedly skeptical of the balls of the producers on this one, but it's hard not to be interested in the concept). The first guess was Fastfood Nation/30 Days creator Morgan Spurlock, in a thinly vieled speech blasting the way cable news talking heads polarize and simplify the American people. In a time when the most pressing debate is personal safety vs. personal freedoms, I could not help but feel that the inclusion of this segment is an oh-so-subtle nod to those of us on the freedom side.
All in all, I was impressed by the broadcast. I'll be sure to tune in the rest of this week, as GW Bush, Bill Clinton, and Rush Limbaugh are all scheduled to appear. For my money, I would reccomend you do the same.
posted by J at 11:13 AM
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