Posted by
Shogrensus on Tuesday, June 12, 2007 4:07:36 PM
June 12 show cont.
Joy is really upset about this Couric thing. Now she has to drag Bush into it:
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Joy: Yeah, but it is so sexist of Dan Rather. I mean every man on every channel talks about a smackdown and we're gonna go get them and Bush is the most macho. Nobody really goes after them in this way. It's sexist. They're not saying "Oh Bush is butching up the war" do they? No. They say "She's tarting up the news." I think that is very rude of Dan.
Syler: Yeah but one person said it. That's not (people talking over her)
BW: Go ahead
Syler: I was just going to say, one person has said that- it's Dan Rather. It's not like I think everybody is out there going "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! She was tarting it up."
BW: She's been working very hard. She comes in everyday and she does her job. It is very hard to change viewing habits and it is mostly older people who watch the early evening news and whatever and I know what Katie's gone through- I went through some of it myself years ago when I first came to ABC as the first co-anchor of a network news program and it's tough and I give her great credit and she handles herself with charm
EH: And I think a statement like this is you know in a funny way he's trying to make a statement about Katie and in fact tells more about him than it does about her
***
I would love to have heard Elisabeth ask Joy what news anchor, on Fox or any other news show, EVER either used the word smackdown in terms of the war and referred to Bush as macho? She should have to name names on those points. Every man on every channel? What men on which channels? RIDICULOUS!
I don't think Rather's statement says anything about Dan Rather- it makes an honest statement about news anchors. They aren't necessarily deep thinkers but they do need to be able to listen to voices in their ears and talk at the same time (that leaves Joy out of the running) and be attractive. Is that really shocking to Joy?
Surely Barbara and the others understand that it does not matter how hard someone works if they don't get results. People who don't perform get let go. I am surprised CBS has hung on to Couric this long.
While it is true that Dan Rather doesn't speak for the masses, his point should not be missed. CBS thought Couric would be attractive to a larger segment of possible viewers and that her lighter, fluffier daytime approach to news would be appealing to that audience. CBS was wrong, or at least wrong about Couric being the woman who could dumb it down, tart it up and bring in a larger audience. Maybe the hiring folks at CBS should turn on Fox news and try to recruit some of the women from its news desk. Oh wait- he said they want to dumb it down? Go to CNN and start over...