Thursday, May 10, 2007

CBS News Has Lowest Ratings In 20 Years

Ouch.

It surely wasn’t what CBS dreamed about when Katie Couric was hired: “CBS Evening News” last week recorded its smallest audience since 1987, and probably many years before that.

It also didn’t help that the average of 6.05 million viewers came at the beginning of the important May ratings “sweeps.”

(6) Comments
Posted by Owen at 0642 hrs
Culture

  1. Don’t watch the alphabet network news - haven’t watched it in years so this is a big yawn for me.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 10, 2007 at 0748 hrs


  2. Maybe all of the networks could just give up on the news completely. They are doing more harm than good anyway

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 10, 2007 at 1058 hrs


  3. They could have Rosie O’Donnell be her co-anchor.  She’s heavy enough to be an anchor, she’s unemployed, and it doesn’t sound like they have much of a serious news audience, so it’s not like they need a qualified journalist.

    Personally, I read three daily newspapers, and spend too much time here, so I don’t watch that much TV anymore - I try to catch local news on TV if I’m still awake at 10:00.  I find that although much on the blog is suspect information, it usually does direct you to things that you might not have found out about otherwise.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 10, 2007 at 1225 hrs


  4. I think too that some major mistakes on CBS’ part, and their refusal to admit their error has cost them a lot in terms of their credibility.

    Three instances that stick with me are:

    1. The hatchet job on homeschooling about 3-4 years ago, where their intent was to ‘prove’ that homeschooling = child abuse, and they featured a family where the parents were abusing their children;  however, they left two very important facts out—(1) the parents never filed the necessary paperwork to homeschool (so therefore they weren’t homeschooling but rather were truant) and (2) CPS had made numerous (over 10) visits to the home and did nothing.  In response to emails recieved, CBS simply stated that they were going to stick by their story.

    2.  The Reagan bio disaster—again, while this isn’t CBS News, it did relate to historical/factual events, and CBS finally pulled the show after public outcry (but still aired it on their Showtime channel).  They admitted no wrongdoing.

    3.  The infamous ‘fax’ about the Bush military records in the 2004 election.  To this day, Dan Rather still stands by the story, even though it has been thoroughly discredited.  CBS has not strongly come out saying ‘We made a mistake’ either.

    I’m sure that other examples can be pointed out.

    Katie Couric and her legs are not enough to make up for a serious lack of credibility which CBS has earned.

    I also just listen to talk radio, NPR/WPR, watch the 5:00 local news, and look at various sources on the Internet.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 10, 2007 at 1411 hrs


  5. Did anyone really expect the perky Katie Couric to turn around the Titanic known as See BS News?

    Posted by pdigaudio on May 10, 2007 at 2159 hrs


  6. Jodi, how about the hit pieces on Soldiers that served in Vietnam that Dan Rather produced throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s. Rathers view was that every GI that served then was a drug addict or worse John Kerry. That generation finally accumulated enough wealth to repute the reports and See BS back pedalled faster then Michael Jackson.
    To this day my family thinks no man who served his country proudly in the 60’s and 70’s was a real hero. Thank God for Mel Gibson. He showed the truth of what happened in his movie We Were Soldiers (Once and Young).

    This is not a rebuttal of what you said, but to me, it is the single most reprehensible thing See BS has ever done.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 10, 2007 at 2258 hrs


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