The Linux Extremist

It’s very rare that a change on American television news is reported in Britain. However a move by CBS News has been widely noted here; they replaced an old male newsreader with a perky, female one named Katie Couric.

This should mean virtually nothing to viewers in the United Kingdom. To be fair, we do get CBS News’ evening broadcast but anyone who goes to bed at a sensible time would never know it: it runs on Sky News at 12:30 AM.

My girlfriend arrived late this past Friday due to a flight delay, so we had the rare opportunity to watch the programme while we were settling down for the evening. I had to explain to her who the perky American woman was; I also had difficulty communicating that somehow her taking over the role was considered important.

The programme is less than 30 minutes long and in terms of providing “news”, it seems rather poor compared to the channels we get in Britain. The use of emotive terms in items which should have been merely describing facts was notable; furthermore, there was a certain maudlin quality about some of the segments, including the item in which a reporter visited the town where United Flight 93 crashed on September 11, 2001. If anything, it was a “news digest” with an editorial slant.

So why the fuss? Why has even the ancient and venerable Economist run an item on something of such minor importance? Apparently, it’s because this is the best counterblast the Old Media can summon up against the New Media.

Ms. Couric’s predecessor, Dan Rather, was felled by the New Media. His credibility was destroyed after a blogger noticed that memos that stated that President Bush had not honourably served in the Texas National Guard were fakes; Mr. Rather, however, had assured everyone they were genuine. The management of CBS somehow think that a lot of hype, perky Katie and yes, a bit of work on their website is going to help.

The programme, as previously noted, is something of a flop as a journal of record. The website is a bit better; it’s a standard site, running off of Linux and Apache, and like many news sites, it has videos to accompany its articles. The videos, however, again have the emotive rather than factual slant which appears to be the big problem with the entire news division.

In addition to standard news, there is a blog for Ms. Couric. Presumably this is an attempt to ensure that CBS can fight blog with blog. That said, it’s not always clear if Ms. Couric writes the items or her staff do. Every blog has a “voice”, and her blog appears to be a cacophony. Overall, most of it is fairly bland; what I found amusing were the “Word of the Day” items. I am surprised that she believes people don’t know the meaning of “Nonplussed” and “Ubiquitous”.

Overall, I have to wonder if this is the best that CBS can do. Is this what they were getting the overseas press worked up about? If they really believe that this is going to break ground online and on television, they are sorely mistaken. As television, it has none of the grandeur or eloquence of say, Sir Trevor McDonald. As an online offering, it is not nearly as exciting as what is happening in the world of blogging. Ms. Couric may not be entirely unpleasant on the eyes, but it takes more than perk to gain and retain viewers. At best, I suggest that CBS may have slowed the bleeding, but there’s nothing about Katie that means the bleeding is going to stop.

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