April 5, 2006--Rhinestone Network
Edward R. Murrow must be turning over in his grave.
Yesterday the NY Times reported that CBS was about to make a deal with Katie Couric that would have her mount the chair once occupied by Walter Cronkite and from that perch anchor the CBS Evening News (see article liked below). And just this morning the deal was consummated and announced.
Whither the Tiffany Network?
It feels so cheapened, so un-Murrow, Bill Paley, Cronkite, and shall I add Rather, to have this lightweight escapee from the softcore Today Show assume this lofty position. Didn’t the current CBS execs see Good Night, and Good Luck? How could they stoop this low?
Well, this descent into the commodification of “news,” where anchors and reporters are encouraged to become “stars” and thereby make money from the news, actually began with Murrow. You will not get this from the recent film hagiography. I understand why not—at a time when our so-called journalists roll over in the face of the outrages of current political leaders and their ruinous policies, too timid to even ask probing questions much less not take things at face value, the producers of the film wanted to show how someone as courageous as Murrow could make such a difference, in the hope that wanna-be Murrows would step forward.
I here want to adjust the record—Murrow took on McCarthy only when the senator was in full decline. Murrow was thus hardly as risk-taking as represented. And he did so at a time when his own popularity was high more because of his own version of Barbara Walters Specials—Person to Person, an interview show long on pandering to the entertainment personalities of the day (Liberace as just one example)--than from his See It Now news program.
Ironically then, Murrow very much helped create the concept of “reporters” spending half their time delivering the news and the other half delving into the dimensions and details of Jayne Mansfield’s heart-shaped swimming pool—vividly and leeringly featured on one memorable Person to Person.
So having Katie Couric preside over what has become the Rhinestone Network is not such new news.
Yesterday the NY Times reported that CBS was about to make a deal with Katie Couric that would have her mount the chair once occupied by Walter Cronkite and from that perch anchor the CBS Evening News (see article liked below). And just this morning the deal was consummated and announced.
Whither the Tiffany Network?
It feels so cheapened, so un-Murrow, Bill Paley, Cronkite, and shall I add Rather, to have this lightweight escapee from the softcore Today Show assume this lofty position. Didn’t the current CBS execs see Good Night, and Good Luck? How could they stoop this low?
Well, this descent into the commodification of “news,” where anchors and reporters are encouraged to become “stars” and thereby make money from the news, actually began with Murrow. You will not get this from the recent film hagiography. I understand why not—at a time when our so-called journalists roll over in the face of the outrages of current political leaders and their ruinous policies, too timid to even ask probing questions much less not take things at face value, the producers of the film wanted to show how someone as courageous as Murrow could make such a difference, in the hope that wanna-be Murrows would step forward.
I here want to adjust the record—Murrow took on McCarthy only when the senator was in full decline. Murrow was thus hardly as risk-taking as represented. And he did so at a time when his own popularity was high more because of his own version of Barbara Walters Specials—Person to Person, an interview show long on pandering to the entertainment personalities of the day (Liberace as just one example)--than from his See It Now news program.
Ironically then, Murrow very much helped create the concept of “reporters” spending half their time delivering the news and the other half delving into the dimensions and details of Jayne Mansfield’s heart-shaped swimming pool—vividly and leeringly featured on one memorable Person to Person.
So having Katie Couric preside over what has become the Rhinestone Network is not such new news.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
11:52 AM
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