After having some time to reflect, retired anchorman Dan Rather has concluded that, in retrospect, he probably should not have arbitrarily started a crazy shitshow feud with CBS corporate chief, Les Moonves.
"It may not have been the wisest thing I've done this week," Dan Rather joked yesterday by phone from his office in New York.
Nevertheless, Rather claims his "tarting it up" remark had more to do with "embarrassingly antiquated slang" than gender bias, he still contends that the current CBS Evening News broadcast leaves something to be desired.
Rather — who anchored CBS's evening newscast for nearly a quarter-century — thinks the failure of the "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric" isn't really Couric's fault but Moonves's. The CBS chief decided that to get younger viewers to watch the news, it has to be more fun, more upbeat, more entertaining. In other words: The news had to stop being the news.
Unfortunately for both Couric and Moonves, the younger viewers still aren't biting. As the Financial Times notes, here's been only a 2% increase in female viewers aged 18-49 since Couric first took over the anchor chair in September.
However, CBS producers expect to boost ratings with their latest marketing innovatin, namely: a new "reality" series based on seven middle-aged strangers who live together,* work together at a nightly news broadcast and have their lives taped for half-hour intervals.
The show is expected to air weeknights on CBS, at 6:30pm.
*Or at least in neighboring UWS penthouse lofts.
Editorial Director
[...] job. Yesterday, Les Moonves responded with claims of sexism. Then Dan Rather admitted he may have gone too far, but deflects any notion that he might be [...]
Katie is way better than Rather who is a loser, unemployed and doesn't 15million per year.. a loser that is
[...] broadcast, the awkward potshots directed at Les Moonves, and the highly controversial remarks that may or may not have been targeted at third-place news anchor, Katie [...]