CBS's Problems Are Bigger Than 'Reagan'

The Wall Street Journal ^ | November 5, 2003 | JOHN H. FUND

[RatherBiased.com]

CBS could afford to be complacent about these errors until now because it leads all other networks in overall ratings. However, it still shares in the remarkable 9% decline in overall network ratings this season. Dan Rather's "CBS Evening News" remains mired in third place. On late-night TV, David Letterman continues to lose ground to Jay Leno.

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RATHERBIASED.COM: OK. Let's talk a bit about your former boss, Andrew Heyward. He's lasted quite a bit longer than his predecessors, despite the fact that the ratings have been declining across the board and the flagship Evening News has been mired in dead-last for more than a decade. How can he survive still?

GOLDBERG: The honest answer is that I don't know. But I will tell you that Andrew Heyward is the brightest person that I've met in broadcasting, in terms of--in terms of--raw intellect. Not in terms of, necessarily, courage, you know, journalistic courage, but in terms of raw intellect. Your premise is correct, I think. The morning news has just been a bad joke.

RATHERBIASED.COM: And they've had to re-launch it twice, I think.

GOLDBERG: It's just ridiculous.

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RATHERBIASED.COM: Do you think that has anything to do with Rather? I mean a lot of people inside CBS think he has too much power.

GOLDBERG: I think--Dan, rightly, I want to emphasize this, rightly had a lot of power at CBS News as the anchorman and managing editor of the flagship broadcast, the CBS Evening News. Rightly. Power comes from numbers in broadcasting. Since his numbers have gone down, I know for a fact that they've showed him what might be considered disrespect. There are certain things that are on the news that Dan doesn't want on, certain features, that they ram down his throat. And I know for a fact that he's not happy about that. And frankly, I don't blame him. It's his broadcast with his name on it and his face on it and if he doesn't want a certain feature on the show, it shouldn't be on the show. And I'm not talking about for ideological reasons. I'm talking about he doesn't like a certain kind of thing.

RATHERBIASED.COM: But what about his survival, though? His ratings have been really bad for about ten years [sic], and yet he's still around. A lot of our readers have wondered why he's still around. Is it because of ad money?

GOLDBERG: Look, I think Dan is a first-rate journalist. He has tremendous physical courage.

RATHERBIASED.COM: Well, definitely. He can be a good journalist when he wants to, I'd say.

GOLDBERG: And he's got tremendous physical courage. I do think that doesn't mean a whole bunch to the people in charge compared to ratings. And if they had someone to substitute for Dan, he'd be out before the news tonight.

RATHERBIASED.COM: But doesn't he help their ad rates? He has a fairly good reputation among a lot of older Americans.

GOLDBERG: Yeah, but the ratings are not good and the audience is slowly dying off.

RATHERBIASED.COM: But I'm talking about before that. The ad rates for now. The ad rates for CBS Evening News are higher than for Peter Jennings.

GOLDBERG: Oh is that right? That's interesting. What about for NBC? Are they higher for them, too?

RATHERBIASED.COM: They're higher at NBC.

GOLDBERG: NBC's higher because of the ratings. OK. Well, these guys are going to make their decision based on money. That's how they make all of their decisions. The fact that Dan is a first-rate newsman isn't going to matter to them if it's time for them to replace Dan. If they found somebody this afternoon who they thought would bring the ratings up significantly, Dan would be gone. But that's not a reflection on Dan. It's a reflection on that ratings are paramount to everything.

See http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1015196/posts

[randog]

...has anyone ever hear of this "actress" [Judy Davis]? I hope I never hear of her again.

I hadn't heard of her before this, but I suspect this whole "Reagan" fiasco may have shot her career (at least here in the states). Looks to me like she tried to ingratiate herself with the Hollywood leftists by grunting all the correct anti-Americanisms, only to find those utterings amplified and condemned when she got caught up in the "Reagan" debacle. The silence coming from those involved in producing "Reagan" is very telling, i.e. the unmarketability of "Reagan" may splash over to those involved--producers and actors/actresses alike.

[ken5050]

There is one thing that surprises me in all the well deserved criticism of the movie...that is, one point that is NOT being stressed, and should, be above all others...there is probably unanimous agreement that the two single greatest images of Reagan's presidency are the address he gave after the Challenger disater, and the speech in Berlin....yet neither of these is depicts in the movie, accoriding to what I've read..if that isn't an obvious sign that ther movie is biased, what is? ...why isn't this being mentioned more..

[dead]

President Reagan is played by James Brolin, the husband of liberal activist Barbra Streisand. He has told reporters he believes Nancy Reagan "took over" the White House as her husband's health allegedly failed.

This is called projection, from a limp wimp who sees every aspect of his life controlled by an obnoxiously shrill, shrieking, power-freak bitch.

[cartoonistx]

[WL-law]

Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, longtime collaborators of Ms. Streisand's, are liberal activists who next March will accept an award from the left-leaning Human Rights Campaign for "their sensitive and positive portrayals of GayLesbianBisexualTransgender characters in numerous projects."

Ta add fuel to this fire, I checked the Director's bio-sheet and he directed -- guess what -- The Judy Garland Story.!!

Well isn't that (gay) special?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The two producers are described as being "openly gay." They wove their own narcissism into the film, ignoring the fact that the Gipper was not a homophobe.
I'd still like to have CBS name their "Reagan friends and associates," who contributed to this attack.

[hnorris]

SEX, MURDER, ESPIONAGE, MISSLES, WAR, RAPE, HIGH FINANCE, INTRIQUE, SEX, BRIBES, MURDER, DRUG LORDS, CRIME, GRAND JURIES, SEX, PETS, TREASON, LESBIANS, BURNING BUILDINGS, BOMBS, SEX, & MURDER

Maybe that's one way to get people interested in politics, but I couldn't let my kids watch it because of the violence and sex.

I have to wonder what they would do to the State of the Union Speech.

[The_Victor]

But the Hollywood Reporter concluded that "even extensive edits had failed to produce an acceptably balanced portrayal."

This whole notion of "balance" bugs me. What is balance in telling the truth? Do you provide an 50/50 ratio of lies to facts?

[martin gibson]

Their leftist M.O. is obvious...

Geeze, Eric they aren't 'leftists' or 'liberals' or 'progressives' or any other such newspeak bullsh*t.

They are hardcore, unrepentant 'neo-Stalinists' and nothing but.

Dude, I could really use some help down here in the language war...

[metesky]

In 1998, when they pitched a Reagan miniseries to ABC, Mr. Meron told Variety that its premise was, "Everybody wonders when we will have the first female American president, but what will become evident is that we've already had her."

With Dems it's always "right church, wrong pew". Yes, America has had a female president, the second Mrs. Wilson.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I went to school with the wife of a Smithsonian exec. Both were "way out Left."

[WL-law]

The two producers are described as being "openly gay." They wove their own narcissism into the film, ignoring the fact that the Gipper was not a homophobe.

And guess what -- Barbara Streisand's son has AIDS! That would be, I think, Elliot Gould's son with Barbara.

[PeoplesRep_of_LA]

Wow, I forgot the recent history of CBS making one dumb programming choice after another. I forgot about the Bush/Hitler nonsense, as well as Dr Quinn because it was too "old". And calling Touched By An Angel a fluke? What a bitter fool this Moonves is. I was ready to give him credit for pulling this, not now.

Does anyone remember that it was CBS I believe that was pitching a show about 9/11 victims trying to put their lives back together...as a sitcom!

Its beyond the time for Moonves to step down.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I thought these people ate their young.