CBS Defends Katie Couric’s Iraq ‘Puff Pieces’: Bloggers Are ‘Not Intelligent’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/12/couric-email/

CBS Defends Katie Couric’s Iraq ‘Puff Pieces’: Bloggers Are ‘Not Intelligent’

Last week, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric reported from Iraq, but her stories largely repeated the Bush administration’s talking points. On Sept. 2, Couric even admitted on CBS’s Face the Nation that her rosy reports were based on “what the U.S. military want” her to see:

And so, you do see signs of life that seem to be normal. Of course, that’s what the U.S. military wants me to see, so you have to keep that in mind as well. But I think there are definitely areas where the situation is improving.

Watch it at link~

A MoveOn.org member recently wrote to CBS, expressing the opinion that Couric’s reports appeared to be “puff pieces scripted by the institutions it purports to be investigating.” CBS’s response questioned the “intelligence” of the person, adding that he or she probably found the “information from a blog somewhere”:



CBS’s viewers evidently agreed with the MoveOn member. Last week, Couric’s ratings “averaged 5.4 million viewers, the lowest ratings on record since the current ratings system took effect in 1987, according to Nielsen Media Research.”

[Justitia]

1. "Navy Seals Rawwwwk!" - Katie Couric 'nuff said -eom

[truebrit71]

2. Her ratings are still in the shitter...so who cares?

...Anyone who thought that this bought-and-paid-for presstitute was going to do anything other then fellate the military and flatter the ruling Junta had to have a screw loose...

This vapid two-dimenionsal ratings-disaster has been nothing other than an over-paid cheerleader for this administration and the right-wing for donkey's years...

And contrary to the opinion of the faceless/nameless respondee at CBSnews, apparently the intelligent people are the ones that have figured out NOT to watch your news broadcasts...

[Richard Steele]

3. Katie "and that's the way I'm told it is" Couric is no reporter, she's a spokesperson.

She's kinda dumb. and CBS is downright STUPID for
making her the face of their News Division. Those
clowns can't figure out why they've got the LOWEST
RATINGS IN 20 YEARS, and they're saying bloggers
aren't intelligent? That's just sad.

!!!!!GO CBS!!!!!

[lapfog_1]

4. Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Katie Couric

Q: Which of these doesn't belong?

(It's one of those Mensa pattern discovery test questions... I guess the executives at CBS didn't pass :-( )

[Supersedeas]

5. and Kit-Kat Katie has no reason to look beyond the Bush approved story

[graywarrior]

6. Katie needs to be hired as a judge on America's Next Top Model

That's how valuable her reporting is to me. Fucking Gidget Goes to Iraq.

[musette_sf]

7. here's my email to [e-mail]

I was just made aware of an exchange between a MoveOn.org member and your evening news staff.

The MoveOn member correctly stated that Katie Couric's reportage from Iraq was nothing but a puff piece. I would go on to say that it was jingoistic propaganda that had more in common with some kind of Fox "News" version of "Inside Edition", than with any kind of actual honest news reporting.

The reply of your staffer to the MoveOn member's message was in my opinion, in a word, incredible.

Katie Couric is completely unqualified for her position, unless her position is now, like Dana Perino, Perky Cheerleader and Spokesmodel For Bu$hCo Lies. In fact, now that Tony Snow is resigning, perhaps Katie can take his job. Then Katie and Dana can be BFFs, and can go giggle about war, death, oil, plunder and empire while sipping mochalatteventecinos and getting manicures together.

with regret
from an admirer of Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather,
(musette_sf)

[Polly Hennessey]

8. Great email

Great stuff musette_sf. I like your style.

[emilyg]

13. Excellent.

[Blackhatjack]

9. This job has exposed her for the 'lightweight' she is ... Roberts or Pelley would have been better

Her voice is irritating, her knowledge is thin, and she has no journalistic instincts for getting information about what is important.

Her perfect job? Host of an Infomercial.

CBS must be asking itself 'Why did we think that she would be good at this?"

As far as I can see, Harry Smith would run rings around her.

[Efilroft Sul]

11. Lara Logan has my vote for anchor.

She's been in Iraq for much of the war, went places Katie never would have gone, reported stories Katie never would have dared, and she is smokin' hawt.

[The Cleaner]

10. I found it totally odd and convenient that like the day after Katie Couric announced

her reporting from Iraq, guess who just happened to make a rare surprise visit to that country? Could it be Mr. Bush himself? And GUESS WHO *somehow* managed to finagle a totally puff piece interview with him?

hmmmmmmmmm

Coincidence?
:shrug:

[KurtNYC]

18. is she the one getting calls from Cheney's office?

Michael Moore:
You know, I was on one of those morning talk shows and after we went to commercial, the person who was interviewing me said "You know, you know, you are right. I mean, when the war started, it was very difficult here to book the people we wanted to book, ask the questions we wanted to ask. In fact, I got a memo about my tone of voice. And apparently the brass had received a call from Dick Cheney’s office, and said that he didn't like my tone of voice. And I got a memo on it to watch my tone of voice." I was like, "Well you've got to tell that story! You've got to tell that story." "I can't." "Well, why? They can't fire you....

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/28/1335239

[Netbeavis]

12. this from the people whose ratings are in the downward spiral

I guess they must really know what they are talking about since their ratings are doing so well....NOT!

[Oeditpus Rex]

14. 'Reporteen from Iraq, where the surge is workeen

and the U.S. is makeen progress, Katie Couric, CBS Eveneen News."

[autorank]

15. Network: "Actually, most intelligent people..." Bless them for revealingi themselves.

This is how they regard the public, we're idiots. Of course, they're total fools afflicted with
the curse of narcissism, a deadly combination.

I love the letter to them. Couric is just a member of the PR machine that is the corporate media.
Of course, she'd be expected to just hawk the party line.

It's helpful to think of CM/MSM as a part of the Bush administration. Then it all makes sense. In
reality they are, since they advocate the interests of their corporation which are aligned with *.

[Uncle Joe]

20. I agree autorank.

The corporate media and Bush administration are one and the same and that's why they enabled him to power to begin with.

I believe in their heart of hearts the corporate media can't love the Internet, it would be like you having warm and fuzzy feelings for your competitor or as Brian Williams stated he's competing with some guy named Vinnie in a bath robe. Now if some guy named Vinnie in a bath robe is giving your millionaire paid pundit ass a run for it's money, what does that say about your job security or at least the millionaire part of it?

[KaptBunnyPants]

16. Most intelligent people don't watch Katie Couric.

But then again, neither does anyone else.

[Mr. Ected]

17. What I Find Particularly Galling Is How Right Wing Radio Pundits

Continue to maintain that the media in Amerika holds a strong liberal bias.

If it wasn't for our corporate media selling out to Bushco, Kerry would be President today, and our troops would likely be back in the States, going on with their lives.

[Raster]

19. Couric and the Corporate Broadcast System. How quaint.

CBS didn't deserve Dan Rather.

[bvar22]

21. OK Boys & Girls, can anyone say "Potemkin"?

"Of course, that’s what the U.S. military wants me to see,"


”Unlike other candidates, I am not funded by those corporate interests.
I owe them no loyalty, and they have no influence over me or my policies.” ---Dennis Kucinich