Posted on 09/06/2006 4:55:13 AM PDT by abb
I was wondering how bad she was going to bomb, considering that the CBS evening news is only watched by the 65-85 demographic.
I watched it, which is a "Man Bites Dog" story in its own right. Friedman remarks on some cringe-making moments, and in retrospect that's what they were. But I confess I hardly noticed since, to me at this point, the entire experience of watching broadcast journalism is just one big cringe.When watching a play one suspends disbelief and pretends along with the actors that what is being portrayed is real. If the actors step out of character the suspension of disbelief is broken and the audience laughs. And when one watches a performance of the news, one pretends that the reporters are knowledgeable and objective. But in fact the reporters are "reporting" things FReepers already know, and they are consistently, predictably tendentious.
The fundamental fallacy of broadcast journalism is the assumption that broadcast journalism is important. The republic went on for a long time before broadcasting was instituted and even before radio transmission/reception was invented. And the fundamental fallacy of journalism in general is the conceit that journalists are objective when in fact the are full of themselves. We all are fullof ourselves, of course - but some of us make a serious effort to actually do useful things instead of merely second guessing those who do.
And the selective reporting of only the things which went wrong in particular ways is nothing but a second guess. Twenty times as many Americans are killed in traffic accidents as are killed in Iraq; the selection of the deaths in Iraq to the virtual exclusion of the routine slaughter on our highways is an obvious bias. There being no obvious way to spin those traffic deaths as an indictment of the Bush Administration.
Journalism is simply a particular lens through which an image of part of reality (and part fantasy) can be viewed. Journalism overemphasizes the importance of the recent and of the atypical and the negative. On any given day the predominant living human reality is that most of us get up in good health, work or do whatever else we planned to do, eat 3 square meals, and sleep in a comfortable bed. And on any given day our ancestors are still dead. That is the big picture - none of which makes the news.
Read Andrea Peyser's hit piece. Pretty low of old Andrea.
BTTT
and smarter, and more articulate, and..... and....
I'm reminded of the movie, "The Three Cabelleros" (Not the Disney cartoon), with Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short playing Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms and Ned Nederlander.
Lucky Day: Reading telegram: "Three Amigos, Hollywood, California. You are very great. 100,000 pesos. Come to Santa Poco put on show, stop. The In-famous El Guapo."
Dusty Bottoms: What does that mean, in-famous?
Ned Nederlander: Oh, Dusty. In-famous is when you're MORE than famous. This man El Guapo, he's not just famous, he's IN-famous.
Lucky Day: 100,000 pesos to perform with this El Guapo, who's probably the biggest actor to come out of Mexico!
Dusty Bottoms: Wow, in-famous? In-famous?
Minnillo and Menounos
Or "Couric".
Cringe Bump.
And the view is a lot better over there! wowie zowie
Don Imus: "So what do you think of these changes at CBS News?"
Andy Rooney: "I’m not enthusiastic about it. I think everybody likes Katie Couric, I mean how can you not like Katie Couric.
But, I don’t know anybody at CBS News who is pleased that she’s coming here."
"A READER RESPONDS (about my column Tuesday on the change at the top of Viacom): "Tom Freston's firing will make no difference to Viacom's future. Viacom's already struck the iceberg and this move is just re-arranging the deck chairs." -- Walter Abbott
AMEN!! Her VOICE is crackey....hard to listen to.
Lol. Shameless self-promotion - what can I say...
My trophy bride came home from work and teased me why I wasn't watching Perky Chunky, her name for Katie.
The tv wasn't on, and I asked her why the question. She said that the old liberal women, who came into their office yesterday were excited that a woman was in charge of evening news on CBS.
No one in her office has watched evening news since 9/11 and on election nights. None of them will be wasting electricity on Katie.
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