February 4, 2012

Pittsburgh Sports, Opinion and Politics | Just Watch the Game Blog

Blog by John Steigerwald

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CBS NEWS IN THE TOILET

I don’t know anybody who had worked in TV news who didn’t think that Katie Couric would be a disaster as anchor of the CBS Evening News.

Now she’s finally hit rock bottom with the worst ratings in CBS News history.

The suits in New York are famous for outsmarting themselves.

They saw somebody who was cute and perky and really good at doing recipes and fawning over celebrities and they thought that they had found the perfect replacement for Dan Rather.

They deserve exactly what they got.

Related posts:

1. TIGER IN THE TOILET
2. IN DEFENSE OF BEN
3. READY FOR ANCHORLESS NEWS?
4. NHL AWARDS RESULTS GOOD NEWS FOR PENGUINS
5. FOX NEWS DESTROYING COMPETITION

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Date: August 24, 2010

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: CBS NEWS WORST RATINGS, CBS WORST RATINGS EVER, KATIE COURIC BAD RATINGS

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Comments RSS TrackBack 28 comments

• Reply

  VinceL

  in August 24th, 2010 @ 20:55

  She used to start every broadcast with a cheery “Hi everyone!”.Now can you imagine Cronkite or David Brinkley saying that to open?

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• Reply

  Cambot

  in August 24th, 2010 @ 21:06

  How much of this would you attribute to Ms. Couric’s lack of credibility and how much to the decline of televsion news operations in general.

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• Reply

  JohnSteigerwald

  in August 24th, 2010 @ 21:51

  Equal parts. She and the people who were dumb enough to hire her have contributed to the decline.

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  Cambot

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 06:39

  I concur.

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  Mary hallow

  in August 24th, 2010 @ 21:34

  I don’t think it is totally her fault. The article also states that abc hit new lows too. I think that more people are watching cable news and getting their news online and the networks are losing people as a result. With that said, she’s horrible.

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• Reply

  JohnSteigerwald

  in August 24th, 2010 @ 21:50

  It’s almost never one person’s fault. She makes the bi bucks. She stinks.

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  Richard

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 02:50

  She is bad.

  CBS news used to be an institution.

  60 Minutes is still the best investigative journalism on television, and even that program has gone soft over the past five years. I’ll never forget that report that Steve Kroft did after 9/11 when they just walked onto that chemical plant on Neville Island.

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• Reply

  Mason

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 07:51

  It is not totally her fault – but she is bad as a news anchor. It is the fault of the entire MSM. They have been driving themselves into a ditch for quite a few years now.

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• Reply

  Chuck Y

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 07:47

  John,

  This is a great piece of news.

  If anybody’s looking to point the finger of blame, then CBS News needs to point it at non other than them self. For years, they failed to groom a successor for Dan Rather, especially in which his antics finally caught up to him (Bush 43’s military personnel file).
  For what it’s worth, does anybody remember when Rather’s heir apparent likely was Scott Pelley? The two had a lot of similarities such as being native Texans, White House correspondents, war correspondents and probably the biggest factor; the both worked out of CBS News’ Dallas bureau, especially when it came to national tragedies. Rather was there in town, November 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated, plus Pelley covered the Oklahoma City federal building bombing from that same bureau in 1995.

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• Reply

  JohnSteigerwald

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 09:07

  Scheduled newscasts at the network and local level are in their last days. Nobody want to be told what time they can get their news anymore. They get it when they want it. I have a chapter on the demise of local news in my book. Plus, I’m nice enough to tell them how to fix it.

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• Reply

  rich

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 08:31

  I don’t care for Katie Couric. I never liked her. I can’t watch her and I quit watching CBS a few years before Rather left.

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• Reply

  JohnSteigerwald

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 09:05

  So did millions of other people.

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• Reply

  kilrain

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 09:14

  CBS,NBC and ABC could cancel their national news shows tonight and I wouldn’t notice or care. Haven’t watched in years. For that matter WPXI,KDKA and WTAE could do the same. Local “news” is all Steelers,weather,water main breaks and drive-by shootings.

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• Reply

  JohnSteigerwald

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 09:19

  We have a bingo.

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• Reply

  Rock

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 13:12

  Johnny,

  I always thought Bob Schieffer did a nice job on the weekend evening news.

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  JohnSteigerwald

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 14:39

  Good reader. Nice guy.Liberal.

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• Reply

  Richard

  in August 26th, 2010 @ 01:36

  Schieffer should have been the guy to take over. Liberal or not, the guy has journalistic credibility.

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• Reply

  JohnSteigerwald

  in August 26th, 2010 @ 06:37

  Yep.

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• Reply

  Arnie

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 09:11

  She makes Baghdad Bob look credible.

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• Reply

  Richard

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 12:23

  Nobody watches network broadcasts because of cable news and the internet. I think I’m the last generation (26 yrs) that remembers how much the nightly news used to be appointment television. Every night when I was young it was KDKA at 6 and then Rather at 7. I miss those days.

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• Reply

  JohnSteigerwald

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 14:39

  When I was doing sports on TV from 1978 until about 1995….every player on every team knew who I was. After that, most of them had no idea. They never watch local news now. I can tell by the people who recognize me on the street how it has changed. My mug was on TV for 30 years and for most of that time there was nowhere I could go and not be recognized. I’ noticed in the last several years hat 20 somethings had no idea who I was. That’s why local news is on it’s way out. Young people no longer are exposed to it because their parents stopped watching, too.

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• Reply

  Bobzilla

  in August 26th, 2010 @ 08:01

  The same can be said for newspapers. I used to read five newspapers a day. Now you can’t even find five newspapers available. It’s a shame.
  There was no more pleasant experience than going to a newsstand, purchasing a fresh newspaper, unfurling it at a place of your choice, then sitting back and relaxing with some great columists.
  I refuse to get involved in this internet newspaper business. Ever try to wheel your computer into a bathroom for a several-minute good read? Doesn’t work!!!

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• Reply

  JohnSteigerwald

  in August 26th, 2010 @ 14:45

  Get Ochotexto to tell you about his iPad.

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• Reply

  Mario4Prez

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 12:42

  “The bibucks?!?” I don’t even want to know…:)

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  Mike

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 21:49

  On the morning of 9/11/01 just after the first plane hit, Katie Couric made the brilliant observation, “This is going to be a terrible blow to the Bush administration.” Three thousand people were in the process of being murdered and she decides to get political. Idiot. Regarding the local news, I cringe every time I hear one of the anchors tell us that we’re seeing on their station first or that we’re only going to see it on their station. Someone should tell them that ESPN is the leader in self promotion and that they should just do their job and shut up. Someone also needs to tell the weather reporters that our well being does not depend upon the weather. They get way too happy when the weather is nice and way to down when it’s bad. While I’m rambling, maybe if more attention was given to issues that really impacted people like property taxes, health care, our wasteful state legislature, etc and devoted a little bit of time educating people about issues, people might actually start to care and do something substantive. But, i guess the important stuff doesn;t provide dramatic video like a house fire or car accident and doesn’t give a good sound bite like an interview with a Steeler.

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• Reply

  JohnSteigerwald

  in August 25th, 2010 @ 22:00

  There was a time when I could defend local news. Not anymore. It’ been at least 10 years that it’s been indefensible. I have a chapter in my book that explains the demise and offers a way to save it from extinction, which is where it is headed.

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  Bobzilla

  in August 26th, 2010 @ 10:43

  The way to “save the local news from extinction,” would be to hire hot chicks (preferably blondes) in short skirts. After all, that’s how they’re solving the problem at the cable-news level.
  Seriously, the problem with local news is that there is way too much of it. Most afternoon/evening broadcasts start at 4 and end at 7. Then there’s the traditional half-hour news at 11. Three and a half hours each day of local news seems a bit excessive to me … unless, of course, it’s being reported by hot chicks.

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• Reply

  JohnSteigerwald

  in August 26th, 2010 @ 14:51

  Hot chicks in tight sweaters and low cut blouses would work, too. If you listen to KDKA radio news at the top of the hour, you will have heard enough to feel informed about what’s happening locally. TV news at one time inclouded feature stories, commentary, expert contributors (doctors, lawyers, etc). That could justify putting on a one hour newscast. Everything changed in the mind-90s when they went to meters to measure ratings. That’s when they became afraid to do stories or features longer than a minute and a half because if someone with a meter got bored and changed the channel at the wrong time, they don’t get credit for a viewer. So it became all about “breaking news”…..fires..car crashes….weather and the Steelers–with weather and the Steelers the two most important elements. So, they started doing stories that were meant for a 15-30 minutes newscast and put them in a one hour newscast and they succeeded in dumbing down the audience. Can you imagine Al Julious being hired today to do 3 minute commentaries?

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