Audience input

If you want some basis for despairing at the audience for television, or at least for television news, take a look at the comments on Katie Couric's debut as CBS News anchor last week. Before the internet, there was a certain threshold for audience input: it was necessary to write or type a letter, stick on a stamp, etc. New, thanks to comment sections, audience members can write and send more easily than they can blog. And as with blogs, they can be pseudonymous.

Here's what I mean:

Posted by Joe | Sep 5, 2006 12:54:34 PM

Who the hell still watches the evening news anyway? Most of us are still working at 6:30p - guess this is a question for the old folks.

A literate comment, by comparison.

Posted by Wizzer | Sep 5, 2006 2:37:26 PM

Unless she is topless I won't watch.

Posted by Oswald | Sep 5, 2006 3:18:59 PM

What out of touch, overworked, lame brains would watch ANY of the networks evening news broacasts??!! It's the sure way to get your whitewashed, politically correct, liberally absurd news fed to your useless, moronic, lemming selfs.

If it takes Couric to get you to watch, you are far to stupid to care about the news. What have you poor saps done since your fearless alien Dan Rather left? (no pun intended)

[Note: if you want to accuse someone of being stupid, it's best if you don't write "to" where "too" is required, or make the plural of "self" into "selfs." It undercuts your authority.]

Posted by Earl Flynn© | Sep 5, 2006 4:04:05 PM

Sorry I don't watch the news anymore. Too much brainwashing going on that's beginning to insult my intelligence. Watch what you say Katie, you could end up like Rather.

It occurs to me that some brains could use a good washing. The comments go downhill from there.

Posted by Cool Hand | Sep 5, 2006 7:10:17 PM

Overweight, liberal, over-hyped, irrelevant, fastly declining, a total bomb. And that's just the network! Hey, they don't call it See-BS for nothing!

As far as Couric? Well, I think the fact that See-BS had to tow her fat, insulated, northeast liberal ass around the country on a "listening tour" pretty much shows they have no f***ing clue as to what they're doing. Online news, Fox News and talk radio now RULE the airways. See-BS and others are quickly going the way of the wooly mammoth.

It's always a tip-off when a commenter HAS TO USE ALL-CAPS to MAKE SURE we give his words APPROPRIATE ATTENTION! HEY YOU, I'M TALKING TO YOU. YES, YOU!!!!

Posted by No Comprenda | Sep 5, 2006 8:28:45 PM

I, like millions of other Americans, do not watch the CBS news.

If they want to increase their viewers, maybe Katie should speak Spanish to attract the illegal invaders from south of the border.

Posted by jnik | Sep 5, 2006 9:36:26 PM

So the home of Murrow and Cronkite is now occupied by this perky little cheerleader chipmunk? I missed it tonight! Did she show plenty of leg?

Posted by Katie Hater | Sep 5, 2006 9:20:51 PM

Katie sucks, always has, always will. She blames any Christian she can for anything. I could care less if her show goes well or goes to hell.

For this and other comments from the site, it would be a challenge to find any evidence to support the (usually implicit) claims. Sexism, anger at celebrity, anger at perceived political and cultural agendas pretty much jump off the screen.

This post should not translate into "people are stupid." All the comments are reflections of ideological positions which hold the writers: some offer traces of evidence, some channel talk radio or (more rarely) stock positions from the other side. (For reasons I may explain later, "liberal" has been inappropriately used.) In some cases, opening news and information up to public comment produces incisive and corrective comment. However, the question here--how do you feel about the first solo news anchor since Baba Wawa sitting in Dan Rather's old seat--does not appear to inspire either.







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