Katie Couric -- opinions?

[Orrex]

How do you think she's doing so far? How do you think she'll continue to do in her new role?

[proud patriot]

1. I haven't watched

:shrug:

[AndyA]

2. Not watching. n/m

[Jacobin]

3. Well, Limbaugh has a weekly segment on her show

Anyone who would want to associate herself with that drug-addled, bigoted, gasbag can take a flying leap off a high diving board into an empty pool.

[Chimichurri]

7. a weekly segment? I haven't heard of that - but I won't be watching.

How on earth could she possibly put on such filth and expect that to give her credibility? This is terrible.

[RamboLiberal]

36. Limbaugh is a one time on Thursday - but just for that reason

I won't watch. Can see where this show is heading when they feature him the first week!

[Eric J in MN]

53. They will probably just have Rush Limbaugh on once this year.

The "freeSpeech" segment seems to be every night, but they want to have different people giving their opinions.

[Scout1071]

4. I'm sorry, but did we really need one more Couric thread?

Couldn't you get a sense of people's feelings in the other 80 threads?

[bluerum]

5. Sell out tool. Will NEVER watch Fox, CNN or MSNBC.

[Eric J in MN]

58. Katie Couric is on CBS. (NT)

NT

[MrCoffee]

6. one word...

gravitas.

[Orrex]

8. Party pooper!

:spank:

[MrCoffee]

13. i fought it for sooo long.

[Bluebear]

9. She's gonna RAWK!!!!!

:eyes:

[LTR]

69. Just like the Navy Seals?

[Montauk6]

10. I'm sure there'll be a major jolt in CBS News ratings tonight

[LSK]

11. gravitas

:hi:

[Orrex]

14. Et tu?

Then :spank: to you, as well!

[LSK]

20. .

:rofl:

[blue sky at night]

12. Have not watched any network Television News.........

will not ever again.

[Crabby Appleton]

35. me too, don't watch broadcast network news

and I can't stand katie.

[Critters2]

15. She's seriously lacking in...

gravitas. :hide:

[Orrex]

19. Et three?

:mad:
:spank:
:mad:

[Critters2]

21. This guy made me do it...

:evilgrin:

[datadiva]

16. Who? n/t

[QuestionAll...]

17. don't really know her, don't want to spend the time to...

another cookie cutter product, that's my opine.

[MrCoffee]

18. KnR

[puffthemagicdragon]

22. just dont turn your channel to it

dont give her the ratings, this is overblown garbage and there are more important things going on in the world - I certainly dont want that lightweight telling me about it.:puke:

[onecent]

66. Do we ACTUALLY give CBS ratings when we click on CBS just to

see how she is doing (which I already have made up my mind)...ever since she raked Michael Moore over the goals...I have NEVER watched her or Matt L. again.

I was under the impression they got ratings from TV's that were set up with some company to monitor their programs). I may be wrong. Can someone help me?

Thanks.

[chelsea0011]

23. Here's my prediction. The show will be just like all the others..

an Irwin story, oil find story, an aside to Iraq, the Bush "what me worry" tour, the dems want Rummy fired, and then people who turned in will wonder what the fuss was all about. After which, the cable news will do 24/7 coverage of how she did reading the news.

[Orrex]

24. Thank you, all for your opinions!

A thought in closing:

=================

The President is receiving his daily briefing when Rumsfeld appears with the latest Zogby poll in hand.

"It's just as we suspected," says the Secretary. "The people say you project no gravitas."

"That's ridiculous," chuckles the President.

The assembled staff sits in silence, surprised at this casual reaction from a man so driven by focus groups.

"I played grab-ass with the best of 'em during my fraternity days," says the Pres. "Heck, I still do."

=================

nyuk nyuk nyuk

I gotta million of 'em!

[MichiganVote]

25. The dawn of the perky news

[Mist]

26. To me, "perky" = "nails on blackboard" But it 's not really a problem

since I stopped cable for my TV.

[Eric J in MN]

61. Do you still get CBS? (NT)

NT

[Mist]

72. I don't think so--still have the cable for phone and broadband, so

I don't think I'd get regular broadcast TV. But I gave up broadcast years ago anyway. I still miss some of the cable shows I watched, but here, it's almost $100 for basic expanded cable plus HBO. Screw that, I need the $ for other things!

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

27. Any DUer Who Wastes Their Time Watching Katie.....

You all know who you are. Enjoy the show.

[high density]

28. I'm watching tonight out of curiousity

And to hear how horrid Jamie Horner's new theme is.

[high density]

38. turned it off already

Ick.

[CatholicEdHead]

29. The show started off in a Dateline fashion

[Skidmore]

30. She sucks lava rocks.

[Cha]

32. And elephant

corporatewhore eggs.

[CatholicEdHead]

31. Lots of spin so far

You really don't need the Friedman interview in for "balance". Just give the news straight up, not in a point-counterpoint fashion. :puke:

[partylessinOhio]

33. I flipped there briefly. She's doing Today at 6:30 with the interview

using two chairs, skirt hiked up.

She still hasn't learned how to use lipstick. The dark lip liner was/is and always will be gross.

Back to N B C !

[RamboLiberal]

40. Not watching - but when I saw the pic on mediabistro

I thought - hell she's doing the Today show!

[partylessinOhio]

44. All that money and she's recycling Today on CBS! Bad joke on them!

I stopped watching Today because I couldn't stand her and the other three.

Anyone think she has been made over to look more like Meredith Viera????

[RamboLiberal]

57. Some instant viewer reactions on mediabistro

> "It feels like Dateline. Not a newscast, and not 60 Minutes. More like a blend of news and Extra. Dateline is the closest thing. Yikes..."

> "CBS now has my 'eyes' at 6:30pm. Good mix of top stories, well-paced, and other features that are, at least, somewhat unique. The set and graphics rock, and Uncle Walter, though not the voice he was, still adds a 'signature' touch..."

> "While NBC Nightly News was updating viewers on Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's operation, CBS was showing pix of baby Suri. Enuf said..."

> "It just didn't seem like they had as much news as they did when Scheiffer was on there..."

> "Watch for instant dissing from the right-wing blogosphere. Tom Friedman bashed Bush. And Morgan Spurlock is not exactly a conservative pin-up boy, despite the pro-civility message..."

> "The Katie Show wasn't worth the price of admission. The gimmicks can't be repeated, so tomorrow and the next day will be better indicators..."

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

[Bluebear]

34. Gee, she looks fatter than in her ads.

O8)

[Dinger]

41. She Looks Old As Shit Too

LOTS older . I didn't watch, just whizzed past for a 2-second look, and I mean 2 seconds.

[renate]

45. that's okay with me

I haven't seen it out here on the West Coast yet, but I'm glad to hear that they haven't done that fuzzy soft lighting on her that they do on Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer. That should increase her....

(I can't help it)

...gravitas!

[Bluebear]

46. Her eye makeup is...well, grave.

You'll see what I mean.

(PS my "she looks fatter" is in response to the CBS ad campaign in which they "trimmed her down" via photoshop.)

[renate]

52. "grave" !!!

:rofl:

[shortcake]

37. Good to see a woman as anchor.

So far the news has been the same as elsewhere. The people on the conservative board hate her and most people here hate her. Sounds like a winner.

[Hotdiggitydog]

39. Well, she started off good

with an exclusive story about how the US has let the Taliban start to take Afganistan back over.

Then, Tom Friedman was excellent, contrasting Bush's claims that we are in the fight of our life against terrorist, WWIII, a global war with the fact that He's signed off on Tax Cuts and didn't send enough troops to Iraq.

[cynatnite]

42. She's done okay so far n/t

[woo me with science]

43. "And coming up, something new in the news......besides ME!" nt

[Simeon Salus]

47. A very different show than the one we saw last Tuesday

This show has Katie all over it.

Opening full body shot walking toward the left of camera while the camera pans to follow? Got it.
Obligatory "Mary Hart" crossed leg shot during first 6 minutes? Check.
Bad eye makeup job? Check. She's a nice looking lady, I'd think they'd underplay the mask.
Lara Logan in full headscarf? Check. Not nice.
Consulting a man in studio, instead of a woman? Check.
Providing visuals for the Bush speech as if they were designed by Karl Rove? Got that down.
"Yes-Suri" pun during the baby picture segment on the evening news. Did I just write that? Check.
Slamming Dan Rather in the closing by following him with Ted Baxter? Nailed that bad boy!

I'll credit her for this first "freeSpeech" segment choice by Morgan Spurlock, who I generally don't get, but his concise presentation was well presented.

All in all, the View with some news (with Lara Logan occasionally).

[IChing]

48. What network is this on?

Is this a new show on the "Adult Swim" lineup.?

Does it come on before sealab 3000 or before?

[Catchawave]

49. Caught the last 10 minutes....

:boring:

Just my opinion, I could be wrong ?

[alfredo]

50. The First "Free Speech" segment was good.

Morgan Spurlock was the commentator. He called for civil discourse. I guess Clinton will be on Wednesday. If he does the same as Spurlock, and Rush is the same loutish hate monger, he will look like a real fool.

[Eric J in MN]

55. He was charming as he said that Americans are in the middle,

...but he didn't offer any statistics to prove it.

[alfredo]

73. You could say that was a device to bolster his theme of

civil discourse.

[Eric J in MN]

51. It was OK. I turned the channel when Bush came on, and

...when Thomas Friedman came on, but the rest of it was OK.

[citizen snips]

54. I did not watch.

[wellst0nev0ter]

56. Ugh. You Know It's Gonna Be Bad

but you just CANT prepare yourself for the incessant cooing and the unmodulating earth-tone vocalizing she uses for anything from the crisis in Afghanistan to some feature on two-year-olds.

Worst. Anchor. Ever.

[cornermouse]

59. Just this.

:thumbsdown:

[GreenArrow]

60. a vapid, self-centered twit

.

[Stu DeBeouf]

62. Kill your television.....

It's a prison camp of the mind.

[stepnw1f]

63. are you kidding? (nt)

[smalll]

64. It was breathtakingly awful -

The only actual "news" on the program was 1)exerpts from a * Terra speech and 2)a competent report from Afghanistan by Laura Logan.

The rest of it was basically 1)Katie getting to show off her legs! (By sitting for a 30-second "interview" with Tom Friedman) 2)telling us that Omigod, Vanity Fair has Suri pictures! (going to the newsstands tommorrow!) 3) Some dude gets American art students to paint portraits of third world orphans - they look into their eyes and become penpals - how sweet. 4)Some writer dude gets to do bad stand-up comedy for a minute or two about basically, why can't we all get along (red state / blue state "I don't buy it.")

And to me, the worst of it all, at the end, when Katie starts in about "All summer, people have been asking me how I will sign off, I don't know, blah blah blah, here's some clips of famous network news sign-offs, hey, go to CBS.com to give me YOUR ideas for a sign-off phrase Mr. and Mrs. America, we'll have a lot of fun reading them, and maybe I'll decide to use yours!"

:puke:

Now I might get in trouble for saying this, but I will: was Fukuyama right? This is what "news" looks like at the End of History, when nothing really happens anymore! Legs, celeb babies, and heart-warming filler.

(It's the drug ads that get me most about the nightly news, can't blame Katie for that -- today, the neon green Lunesta butterfly floated around some more, knocking more people out to sleep. Like hey, do you work in an office 12 hours a day, can't get any exercise, have to grovel to your boss because the concept of worker respect and/or rights is dead so you can't sleep at night because you're thinking about sales charts? Obvious solution for that conundrum - take Lunesta!)

[Eric J in MN]

67. I liked the story about the guy who gets high school art teachers

...to get HS students to paint portraits of people in the Third World.

If more Americans were sympathetic towards people in the Third World, maybe we wouldn't be dropping bombs on them.

[tech3149]

70. My response to CBS

Sirs:

Thank you for providing one more reason not to turn on my TV. By placing MS. Couric as the nightly news anchor, you have reduced the CBS Nightly News broadcast to the equivalent of local broadcast news. The entire format of the broadcast was nothing more than style over substance. Here's a clue, the people of this nation need detailed and accurate information and are hungry for it. If you want the hard-core news junky audience, invest the time and effort in providing more information than the competitors. If that doesn't help, make it more entertaining through humor. Have you ever watched Keith Olbermann? He could look like Andy Rooney and still provide the same impact.
I delayed making any comment until I could view the initial broadcast, but unfortunately my low expectations were not breached. If you insist on making news part of the profit center, dump the high-dollar news readers and invest in investigating the stories you cover (and cover those that have the greatest impact). I hold little hope that any commercial media in this country will be willing to provide accurate and needed information to the people they serve because it would cost too much. Until you honor the idea of serving the public interest, you'll continue to be a loser. As a news source, you should concentrate on providing the people with what they need.


Not too catty I hope

[WinkyDink]

65. She could sign off with the time-honored "So long, suckers!"

And why is she so proud of her stumpy gams, anyway?

[johnfunk]

68. Bring back Crankypants Bob Schieffer -- PLEEEEASE!

Couric gives me colic.

[npincus]

71. more NEWS, less "free speech"

I kept turning back to Brian Williams.

Just report the f*cking news, Katie. If I want opinion or analysis, I'll watch cable.