Say it ain’t so, Katie

Maybe they said it and maybe they did not. Drudge reported yesterday that CBS executives would in all likelihood ask Katie Couric to take a  pay cut. She makes $15 million a year in case you forgot and is in the  4th year of her contract paying that princely sum.

When she took over the evening news , it was running 3rd behind Brian Williams and NBC and Charles Gibson and ABC. After a brief spurt, those ratings have settled in to where they were. The only difference is that Diane Sawyer has taken the helm at ABC.

The talk  of a pay cut came amidst news that CBS would be  laying off still  more people from the news division, including some at the venerable “60 Minutes.” Ironically that comes not all that long after the death of Don Hewitt.

But the next day, CBS News President Sean McManus denied any talk of a pay cut, no matter what Drudge or the New York Post  might have reported.  To make things even more interesting, there is a bit of a glam article about Ms Couric in the current issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Not the best timing. Oh, McManus also  went on to praise Couric’s job performance profusely.

I really could care less whether she gets a pay cut or not even though  she has got to be overpaid if #1 Brian William,s makes only 7  million dollars a year. But it is all so much fun to see, is it not?  There is also no truth to the rumor that Couric is miffed that the title of her show was not changed to the C( ouric) BS Evening news.

As your predecessor( who is now whining to Obama about the  need for a government commission to save the press) would say, “courage.”  Oh, you remember Dan Rather do you not?

Food for thought. The viewing audience for the week of January 25 was  10 million for Williams, 8.5 million for Sawyer and 6.8 million for Couric. Figures are from Chris  Ariens at TV Newser.

Senator Reid Got Absolution-Right or Wrong

The comment made by the august majority leader of the U S Senate, Harry Reid, Democrat, Nevada concerning the candidate Obama is much in the news. Although the comment would have to be considered racially insensitive or worse, the President has in effect told Reid, no big deal, everything’s cool; let’s  move forward.

And, so say many prominent dems; Feinstein and Sharpton among them. The media is generally on board also with only those noxious Republicans refusing to play nice an d get on the real business of running the country. He has apologized they say, to the president and  any number of other black leaders.

I am much more interested in reaction/non-reaction, than in what Reid actually said. The first thing that gets my attention is that the comment was made in 2008. No apology has been forthcoming until the book recounting it  came out. Politically expedient apology- yep. CBS had the authors on “60 Minutes,” the home planet of hard-hitting no holds barred questioning. Somehow they forgot to ask a question  about Reid’s comment.

There are other things about which I wonder. Why so quick to brush it aside when questions about Limbaugh/McNabb still resurface from time to time? And, what the controversy that actually sunk Senator George Allen’s re-election campaign and made Jim Webb a star? And, of course we have the Trent Lott situation, an event that multiple democrats( Landrieu, Gore, among others)used quite well to force Lott from guess what, Senate Majority Leader? Great verbal battle yesterday on this issue with Ann Coulter winning a TKO over Al Sharpton.

Reckon Reid  will have to step down? Nah. But maybe November, 2010 could bring about a change, hmmm?