Katie's not helping her girls.........................

[MediaBoy4Radio]

This from Broadcasting and Cable.....10/23

Women Scarcer On Evening News
By Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/23/2006 6:55:00 AM
B&C Contributing Editor Andrew Tyndall analyzed the first six weeks of Katie Couric’s tenure atop the CBS Evening News and found that woman have gotten fewer assignments.

When former Today host Katie Couric arrived at the anchor chair of the CBS Evening News just six weeks ago, much was made of the fact that she—unlike Barbara Walters, Connie Chung and Elizabeth Vargas before her—was the first solo female nightly-news anchor. But that has not translated to a more female-centric Evening News, at least on the correspondent side.



In fact, since Couric’s arrival, women have received 40% fewer assignments than they did under her predecessor, Bob Schieffer. Men, meanwhile, have seen no cutback in their workload.
That is the one result of an array of changes to the content, form and presentation of the newscast instituted under Couric. Those changes amount to two main differences in the new Evening News.

First, some hard, breaking news has been supplanted by features/interviews/commentary. The "Story of the Day" averages 18% less time than it did under Schieffer, who used to run one soft (human-interest, celebrity) feature for every three on a hard topic. Under Couric, the ratio is one to two. Moreover, the new nightly feature, freeSpeech, devotes 90 seconds to guest commentary.

Second, the role of the anchor has been emphasized; the role of the correspondent downplayed. That change is evident right at the top of the newscast when the day’s major stories are teased.

Whereas Schieffer had his correspondents introduce their own stories, Couric does all the teasing herself. She also has 20% more voiceover time than he did. Couric cedes time for the freeSpeech segment to a CBS News colleague only once a week, when Schieffer himself offers a regular commentary on Wednesday; on the other four days, we hear a guest.

The upshot of all these changes is that stories filed by correspondents account for just 69% of Couric’s news hole, compared with 85% under Schieffer. And the brunt of that cutback has been borne almost entirely by CBS’ female correspondents.

Under Schieffer, stories filed by women averaged 5.8 minutes each night; under Couric, that average has dropped to 3.0 (the average for men is the same, at 10.1 minutes). Medical correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin has been replaced by Jon LaPook. Sharyn Alfonsi, Schieffer’s fifth-most-heavily-used correspondent, has fallen to No. 14 under Couric. Trish Regan fell from No. 11 to No. 21; Elizabeth Palmer, from No. 16 to No. 27.

Among CBS’ women, only foreign correspondent Lara Logan and, in this political season, Sharyl Attkisson on Capitol Hill have maintained their rankings.

Couric has favored national correspondent Byron Pitts, award-winning soft-feature reporter Steve Hartman (on track to become Couric’s Charles Kuralt) and investigative reporter Armen Keteyian. Three major beats remain filled by men —White House (Jim Axelrod), the Pentagon (David Martin) and the economy (Anthony Mason)—as they were under Schieffer.

Couric has risen to the top network news spot. But so far, it seems, her rising tide has not lifted her sisters’ boats.

 

[network]

Oh for crying out loud. Blah blah blah. :

 

[fred flintstone]

Wicked Queen played by Katie Couric

The article presumes correspondent assignments and story selection are Katie's call.

I realize that the networks like to perpetuate the myth that people like Katie are more than "news readers" or "presenters" and actually perform some true journalistic function. Katie may get to come in during the late afternoon and throw her weight around, get leads re-written and story order changed. She may get to bitch about things she doesn't like with some effect. But she is talent. The producers run the show and they are ultimately accountable to management. Katie's role is more decorative than anything else. If journalistic ability and experience were paramount concerns, Bob would still be there.

Now, the article tries to make it sound like Katie goes in to her office and consults her magic mirror: "Mirror, mirror on my desk. Who is perkiest at CBS?' And then axes any competition. More likely, somebody at CBS has decided to do a 180 on The Price is Right (or Deal or No Deal). Instead of Bob Barker (or Howie Mandel) surrounded by hotties, the plan is to have Katie surrounded by news hunks. Maybe they think this will improve their numbers in the straight female and gay male demos.

Whatever they are doing, it does not appear to be working. Every week the audience gets smaller.

 

[oldschooltv]

Okay, I'm not a fan of Katie Couiric (as evident in my other posts). Although I was terribly disappointed to see Bob Scheiffer go, I tried to keep an openmind and see how Katie would do on the Evening News. Well, I don't think she's doing that bad of a job. I'm not as disappointed in her, as I am in the new format (being too fluffy). It definitely needs to be tweaked, or maybe all together returned to the way it was before her arrival. But why all the Katie bashing in these boards? I'm not a fan of hers, but some of the forum participants are beating a dead horse at this point.

 

[fred flintstone]

Okay, I'm not a fan of Katie Couiric (as evident in my other posts). Although I was terribly disappointed to see Bob Scheiffer go, I tried to keep an openmind and see how Katie would do on the Evening News. Well, I don't think she's doing that bad of a job. I'm not as disappointed in her, as I am in the new format (being too fluffy). It definitely needs to be tweaked, or maybe all together returned to the way it was before her arrival. But why all the Katie bashing in these boards? I'm not a fan of hers, but some of the forum participants are beating a dead horse at this point.

Katie is not separate from the format, she is part of the format. Fluffy format and fluffy personality. It was apparently a decision by management (either CBS Sports exec Jim Mcmanus or Les Moonvies) to go with morning-style fluff, instead of Cronkite-style hard news with Bob.

Katie does have some fans who promoted her arrival here as the biggest thing to happen to TV news since ENG. Bashing is a reaction to all the hype when she started.

If they put the format back the way it was, Katie won't fit (and will have to go). But they probably won't. The whole trend in TV news for the past 30 years is to fluff and more fluff.

 

[Morgan Wick]

Re: Wicked Queen played by Katie Couric

The article presumes correspondent assignments and story selection are Katie's call.

I realize that the networks like to perpetuate the myth that people like Katie are more than "news readers" or "presenters" and actually perform some true journalistic function. Katie may get to come in during the late afternoon and throw her weight around, get leads re-written and story order changed. She may get to bitch about things she doesn't like with some effect. But she is talent. The producers run the show and they are ultimately accountable to management. Katie's role is more decorative than anything else. If journalistic ability and experience were paramount concerns, Bob would still be there.

Now, the article tries to make it sound like Katie goes in to her office and consults her magic mirror: "Mirror, mirror on my desk. Who is perkiest at CBS?' And then axes any competition. More likely, somebody at CBS has decided to do a 180 on The Price is Right (or Deal or No Deal). Instead of Bob Barker (or Howie Mandel) surrounded by hotties, the plan is to have Katie surrounded by news hunks. Maybe they think this will improve their numbers in the straight female and gay male demos.

Whatever they are doing, it does not appear to be working. Every week the audience gets smaller.

Actually, CBS giving Katie a ton of power was one of the things CBS was slammed about when they brought her in.