All right, I've probably given this too much ink, but I feel obligated to follow up on the Couric posting from yesterday.
Looks like she did well in the ratings, topping ABC and NBC easily, but I imagine that's the novelty.
Allah provided video, mercifully cut into about three minutes for your benefit.
I thought she looked nice (there I go, scrutinizing her clothes! I'm just a cog in the patriarchy factory!), but she was sitting awkwardly, I thought--sorta half-standing/half-sitting-- and it made the blazer cut her in the wrong spot.
I'm not sure you want to include this sentence in a newscast: "We're trying a few new things here on the Evening News. One of them is something we're calling, 'freeSpeech.'"
She's making it too easy.
Ann Althouse took advantage, serving up a wagonload of snark for the new Dan:
After the break, Couric introduces a "picture perfect idea" that combines travel scenery, kids -- orphans! -- and art. You have got to be kidding me. The artist is from Madison, Wisconsin, so I should be soft on this, but I'm not. Wait, this guy doesn't paint the portraits for the orphans. He gets American school kids to paint pictures of photographs of orphans. We're told the painters form a real connection as they stare at the photos, as is necessary in order to do the paintings. We're informed that staring into the eyes has a very special effect. What glop! And the privileged painter and the orphan paintee sometimes even become penpals. Arrgggghhhhh... I'm in pain from this one.
But I think Ann's too hard on Katie about asking viewers to help her with her sign-off. A sign-off of any originality would have gotten her a ton of flack today, regardless of how good it was. Better to let people get involved, feel like they have a say, and ultimately delay the sign-off picking until there's a bit less hype surrounding it. And, it has the advantage of working a little Web 2.0 action into the evening news, which the evening news desperately needs if it's gonna survive.
Suggestion for a sign-off have, of course, been as merciless as the criticism for an actual sign-off would have been, but I think CBS knew that would happen, and Katie comes off looking like she has a sense of humor:
“Don’t Believe My Hype”
“Good Night, I’m Katie Couric - Living Example Of ‘The Peter Principle’”
“I’m Katie Couric and I’ll Be Back With More Democrat Party Talking Points Tomorrow”
Ed Driscoll thinks Katie jumped the shark, and did it quick.
Morgan Spurlock was a tired pick for the first "freeSpeech" segment, but she was smart to tease the Rush appearance. And, the graphics in the "Snapshots" segment were so very lame, but I haven't watched CBS in so long, I don't know if that's how they always look.
James Joyner points to a scathing MSM review, but concludes that Katie shouldn't worry because no one's watching anyway.
Ooh, and I almost forgot-- you can get Katie in blog form!
I was just glad to find that I will not continue to be oppressed in the horrific manner I have been up until now. Doors were opening all over the place! Then I read this in the comments on my football column from yesterday (edited for profanity):
The dumbest piece I've ever read and then I looked at the top and saw it was written by a woman. Nuff said. We have banned women from Super Bowl Sunday, Bowl Game New Years, and any other big game. All they ever do is blah blah blah and make shi**y salads. A woman cannot know what it is like to be hit and hit for a full afternoon. Period.
And, the dreaded burka descends. Katie, what happened? Is it all because I didn't watch? I'm so ashamed. Hee hee.
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