Television executives are paid to be smart, or at least feign the appearance of same. CBS executive Leslie Moonves is not playing the part of a smart man. Moonves is now attempting to blame the audience, or better yet the lack of same, for his poor decision to pay Katie “The Perky One” Couric, some fifteen million dollars to read the news. Joshua Chaffin, Financial Times [1], reports:
Leslie Moonves, CBS [2] chief executive, on Tuesday suggested that sexist attitudes were partly to blame for the faltering performance of Katie Couric, the news anchor he recruited to the network with a $15m annual pay package.
“I’m sort of surprised by the vitriol against her. The number of people who don’t want news from a woman was startling,” Mr Moonves said of the audience’s reaction to Ms Couric, who this month brought ratings for the CBS Evening News to a 20-year low.
Hint, Leslie the public who is not watching your tarted up and dumbed down evening news, is the essentially the same public that existed before you shelled out your company’s money to pay Couric to read the news.
Addendum: (Bit) ;
Back in the early to mid seventies, when faced with 21% inflation , double digit unemployment, gas lines around the block, and hostages being held in Iran, Jimmy Carter in his infinite wisdom spoke to the American people, and blamed his faltering performance on the American people themselves.
Fast forward to 2007. Along comes Les Moonves, who blames the sexist attitudes of the American people on the faltering performance of his “news” division.
if you look closely you may notice there’s a pattern developing here.
One might even say that we have a better understanding of why CBS news has been carrying the water of the Democrats going back to the days of Jimmy Carter, and before; A like mindset.
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