Katie's Debut

Well, darn it, I pretty much forgot to watch the CBS news last night. I saw the last 10 minutes, or thereabouts, but missed most of it. But, let's face it, evening news is, for the most part, a dead product. Whether it's Katie Couric or Brian Williams or Chuck Norris, people are not going to tune in for the evening news like they once did because, well, there's 8 million other ways to get the news and it's much more convenient (Internet, 24-hour news network, my blog, etc.)

Anyway, I did notice one thing that CBS News is doing right and that's the Free Speech segment. Regardless of your opinion of Katie, it will be ratings help to hear that someone you like (or dislike) will be on there ranting for a minute or so. Pulling in names like Clinton, Limbaugh, Franken, etc., into the Free Speech segment will raise interest. That was a good idea.

Not so good is the constant pleas for people to visit the CBS News website to leave comments on how to improve the show. I mean, that's not a horrible idea but in the 5-7 minutes I watched, they invited people to leave feedback 3 times. Feedback is important but it seemed they were desperate for it...and, well, that was annoying. I'm sure once they get their footing, that won't continue. Additionally, she needs a signoff. I was thinking something along the lines of "This has been Katie Couric and I'm an unabashed liberal but I still report the news as a neutral party. Good night."

So, that's my opinion on Katie's debut. I'm sure she'll do as well as she can on the evening news. I don't know if she'll win the ratings slot or not (I hate to say this, but there's probably a lot of people out there who still prefer their news from an AnchorMAN.) But, all in all, I think they have some decent ideas and I'll probably never watch again (except for Thursday when Limbaugh does the Free Speech segment).

Just a couple other things:

• I can't believe that Bush saying the folks in Tehran are tyrants is worthy of headlines anywhere. What else would you call Ahmadinejad and his merry band of thugs that continue their relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons and continue to promise the annihilation of Israel and Western society?
• Pakistan has promised not to arrest Bin Laden and his Taliban buddies if they are "good." Ummm, I don't know what to make of this...are they serious? Or is this a trap? Does Pakistan need money? WTF?
• Katherine Harris won the Florida primary for the Senate in Florida. Ummm, the world may truly be coming to an end.
• Someone wake up Lou Holtz. Notre Dame dropped in the polls after he said there was no way they could. He is such a great football analyst.
• Greg sent me a list of questions about the 9/11 movie that is going to be on this weekend. I can't get to the site today but it was from dailykos.com. Here is my opinion on the 9/11 movie: Regardless of who makes the movie and how it is portrayed, it is always going to have political undertones on one side of the other. It is going to be almost impossible to make a 9/11 movie without one side or the other feeling slighted or feeling blamed. There's probably plenty of blame to go around for 9/11 but, really, what good does that do now? Let's fix whatever the problems are and not continue to play those games...

Oh, and right or wrong, this literally made me LOL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p4aFBghYyA