Roger Friedman’s outting of Bob Scheiffer as a Katie Couric bad PR plant continues to reverberate. In his FoxNews.com column yesterday, Friedman fingered Schieffer as the CBS insider behind Katie Couric’s publicity troubles — ratings, on-set tension, feuding with CBS’ in-house PR diva Gil Schwartz, producer hopping rationales. The evidence of Schieffer’s doings: His airtime on the CBS Evening News has been decreasing. Or something.
Schieffer is cited as the source behind Gail Shister’s Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday column – the front page, very-insider article from the woman who just had her TV industry column canned – where she laid out claims that CBS execs feel Katie’s hiring was an “an expensive, unfixable mistake” and that she could be gone after the 2008 presidential election.
Not that those sentiments aren’t common knowledge at this point.
Hell, even NYT TV critic Alessandra Stanely is on Katie’s case. (Or, does the error-prone scribe being anti-Katie mean we should all be pro-Katie?)
And today, Friedman updates his list of CBS personalities in the Anti-Katie Camp to include Lesley Stahl, who now only has a hallway “hi” relationship with the anchor.
So are the boldfaced names of CBS reaching out to reporters to fuel a Katie hatchet job? Absolutely. Even we have been contacted by a few. But, as one CBS insider acknowledges, “Yeah? So what? Her ratings are so low, that’s all that really matters. Bob [Scheiffer] can launch all the attacks he wants, but at the end of the day, all Les [Moonves, CBS’ chariman] and Sean [McManus, CBS News president], especially, are going to care about is whether people are watching her. … That’s what will decide her fate.”
One well-placed Katie watcher brings up a good point: If Shister’s sources are Schieffer and Stahl, it’d be little surprise. They regularly bash Katie to anyone who will listen, from CBS staffers to reporters; Shister has long been a Scheiffer supporter. But now with Rick Kaplan aboard and the show’s format changing, we’re assured the show’s staff is warming up, and morale is improving. Though we’re not exactly believing it.
Meanwhile, Gail did note this: “Seven correspondents, producers and executives at CBS and other networks interviewed for this story spoke on condition of anonymity, given the sensitive nature of the Couric situation.” Which means we’ve got a few more anonymous sources to identify. To the inbox, ladies and gents!
Editorial Director
Murrow is spinning in his grave. Bob is a fine newsman, leave him alone.
I for one, let Les Moonves know before the fact, Katie Couric should retire to the farm and leave Bob Schieffer alone. Now its too late. Moonvess goes on as most incompetents do and the ratings keep heading South. I too, liked Bob Schieffer…..leave him alone.
Katie planted her own bomb. It was so obvious that she could not cut it. Social experiments can’t be force fed to Americans unless it is done by the government. There are too many more qualified men and women who deserved the chance to anchor the CBS News desk. The real question is: Who is making these poor descisions at CBS?
Katie’s show is a complete failure–give her a Viking funeral and move on. But all involved in making the decision to hire her should be kicked out on their butts.
What in the hell are all you stupid people complaining about. Bob Schieffer is washed up and if he could have cut it as anchor he would have had the job long ago. I’ll bet all of you don’t even know why you are bashing Ms. Couric. You’re just jumping on the band wagon with other idot morons who can’t make decisions for themselves but who instead allow themselves to be brainwashed by what popular columnist write. Ms. Couric is more than qualified for her job. She does a very nice broadcast. It’s jealous shits like all of you and the small minded people WITHIN CBS who keep this shit going. I say KEEP going Katie. Hold on and shove it in their face. If Leslie Stahl could do the job she’d be doing it.
IF CBS put someone like Britt Hume in charge they would be #1 in 6 months. Just look at what fox has done on cable (beating the others by a mile) by giving viewers a real choice.
I’m surprised they haven’t figured it out yet?
William, Bob Shieffer did not even want the full-time anchor position. And Katie Couric-bashing is not due to jealously. It’s due to the fact that some people know what the difference between a journalist and a TV personality.
Personally speaking I am have not in all honesty followed Ms. Couric on the CBS evening news and it’s not because she is not capable. I believe if I did watch it I would be very pleased with her broadcasts. I base my comments on the beautiful job she did as co-host of the Today Show on NBC for as long as she did that so why shoud she be deemed incapable of anchoring the CBS news show? CBS you made a great choice! Keep up the good work!
Personally speaking I am have not in all honesty followed Ms. Couric on the CBS evening news and it’s not because she is not capable. I believe if I did watch it I would be very pleased with her broadcasts. I base my comments on the beautiful job she did as co-host of the Today Show on NBC for as long as she did that so why shoud she be deemed incapable of anchoring the CBS news show? CBS you made a great choice! Keep up the good work!
i want to stick my finger in avril lavigne’s stinky asshole and see her FECES on my finger
william0758 said:
> Bob Schieffer is washed up and if he could have cut it as
> anchor he would have had the job long ago.
Actually, the ratings were higher under Schieffer than they are under Couric.
[…] Her most recent columns have featured the culturally broad strokes that she was supposedly relegated to: thought pieces on The Closer, The View, Rescue Me, and The Sopranos. But there have been exceptions, like her report on The CW’s troubles, The Daily Show’s youth audience, and a profile on NBC News’ Steve Capus, all of which follow April’s notorious Katie Couric “hatchet job.” […]
[…] with some of her girlfriends. Around this time last year, however, her ink was stained red with rumors she was behind a slew of Katie Couric-bashing leaks. And now, more crimson, this time for a March 2006 60 Minutes […]