The problem with CBS and Katie Couric is not that the show isn't working.  CBS Evening News is a mother on life support and Katie was just stillborn.   She never had a chance.  Ever since CBS lied about the Bush National Guard story, it has as much credibility as, well....a major news network that makes up news.  Small disconnect in that strategy but overcomeable with time except for the fact that CBS, ABC, and NBC are running out of time.

All three of the major networks have been losing evening news viewers for the past 10 years in a major way.  Part of it is because of other mediums like the internet and other news/entertainment formats that are much more real time and accurate and don't have the political bias that is so blatantly obvious all the while pretending not to be blatantly obvious or biased.  The evening news is a throwback to when we all worked at the great River Rouge plant in Detroit or at Ittman No. 3 in the West Virginia coal mines. 

Back then we all came home, had dinner, burped and farted our way into the living room and waited for Walter or Chet or Dave to tell us what had happened.  They were serious then because news was serious. They were responsible journalist doing responsible things helping us to live better lives by being informed better.  I think that even God had no better plan back then.  I mean, guys with suits, talking about things in Washington and on other planets, and coming through a box in our house...it all had to be true...it couldn't be anything else.

The problem today with a format like Katie's and a network like CBS is that nobody believes the faux soft talk, the furrowed brow of concern, or the in depth interviews with people of no depth.  By the time Katie comes on in the evening we already know what her stories are going to be, we've read the corollary pieces and seen the supporting information and the evening news is like a bad  book on tape summary .

We're all journalists now or becoming ones.  In fact, one of the huge legal issues going forward is the one of who is entitled to protection from revealing their sources when everyone can broadcast and everyone has sources.  I can't draw the line between "Official Journalism" and "Unofficial Journalism" anymore.  Maybe it's what Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said when he was asked to define pornography, " I don't know that I can define it.  I just know it when I see it."  A reporter is anyone with a camcorder, cell phone and a web connection. ..that and being able to put some polysyllabic words together in a context that would communicate a complete thought.  I suppose that definition alone creates some ascertainable standards going forward...wud u a gree and stil b my bff?

CBS should just give up being a source of news and just be a source of new things we'd like to watch and see and learn.  It could be the equivalent of the University of Phoenix where we could tune in on line 24/7/365 and buy things that make us smarter or better.  A commercialess evening news is like saying Jello has no fat.  It doesn't matter because it also has no substance.

I'd like to see Katie do something  along the lines of Animal Planet.  You know Cats with Katie, or Katie's Courgars, or Cobra Katie. Anything more interesting and novel than Brad and Angelina explaining under soft lights in one of their three homes for the 17th time why they're not married but still having children and focusing on going green.

I get green just thinking about it..