I have a confession to make. I haven't watched Katie Couric yet in her new gig on the CBS Evening News.
I'm feminist enough to think it's a milestone, but jaded enough to think that winning the top seat in a dying medium isn't much of a prize.
Of course, I've got plenty of excuses for not watching. I isten to the news on NPR while I'm driving...I usually check the news online when I check my email...I get the NYT delivered to my email box...and I have afternoon classes this semester, so I'm not usually home when the evening news comes on (whenever that is...it's been so long since I actually watched a national newscast that I'm not sure).
But the truth is that I just find it hard to get too worked up over Couric being on the CBS Evening News. Wish I could, but it's just not there. Maybe I'm just not a big fan of happy talk.
Now if she'd decided to leave the networks behind and move over to the web instead...well, that would be another story.
3 comments:
Yeah, it's nice to see a woman in a high-profile position like that, but my concern is that she's going to make evening news into morning news with lots of giggles, smirks, and celebrity gossip instead of actual issues. Not because she's female, but because that just seems to be who she is.
But, like you, I haven't gotten around to checking her out yet-- so maybe I should limit my concerns to my own deficiencies!
Lets defind dying. There is no web source of news that has as big of an audience as the big three news networks. It is more that the big three had their trust on the news broken up.
I am amazed that none of the major networks and no cable network has tried to combat the shrinking audience with harder news. I think the problem is that Katie Couric signifies a move away from hard news.
I actually do think it is a milestone, and that it is not so much a dying medium as one in transition. CBS already has name recognition, so as soon as they start moving all content to the web, the mass market will follow (allbeit in smaller numbers, go Long Tail).
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