Stumbling out of the gate
There was a major hiccup on Monday’s “CBS Evening News” — the first weeknight version with Dokoupil in the anchor chair and his first from the home base of New York City.
The newscast started off well enough with extensive coverage of the latest news involving Venezuela. But then the newscast jumped off the rails for a few seconds.
Dokoupil got a tad rattled when he thought the program was going to a story about Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz not seeking reelection. But the graphic on screen was about Hegseth formally censuring Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly and launching administrative proceedings against Kelly.
In a cringeworthy moment, Dokoupil, shaking his head, said, “First day, big problems here.”
He then asked, “Are we going to Kelly here?” And that was followed by a few moments of silence before rushing through the story about Hegseth and Kelly.
“Now we go to Minnesota,” Dokoupil said.
Look, it’s live TV. These things happen. But the timing couldn’t have been worse, with it being the weeknight debut for Dokoupil.
Before and after that major glitch, Doukopil certainly looked and sounded like an evening news anchor. For the most part, he’s smooth and authoritative.
Monday’s version of the “CBS Evening News” felt a bit more stimulating and much tighter than the last version of the newscast with multiple anchors.
But it doesn’t look all that different from a traditional evening newscast. That’s not a criticism, merely an observation. And it’s just getting underway. We should give it a few weeks, maybe even longer, before coming to any conclusions.
Meanwhile …
In his latest piece for The US Guardian, media reporter Jeremy Barr writes that Weiss’ first three months as CBS News’ editor-in-chief “have been more chaotic than even many of her critics expected.”
An unnamed CBS News journalist told Barr, “There is blood in the water.”
Barr reports that in recent days, a group of former CBS News journalists drafted a letter to Weiss’ boss, Paramount CEO David Ellison, expressing reservations about Weiss’ decision to hold a recent “60 Minutes” story about the notorious El Salvador detention center where the Trump administration deported Venezuelan migrants last March.
An early draft of the letter, which had more than 200 signatures, said, “This clumsy editorial interference endangers 60 Minutes’ role as CBS’s flagship public interest broadcast and as the news division’s most profitable franchise. The crown jewel of the network you recently acquired now faces a crisis of credibility and trust.”
It seems unlikely that such a letter would have much of an influence on Ellison, who personally hired Weiss. But it does show that Weiss apparently has some work to do to build trust among her staff.
One CBS News staffer told Barr, ‘We are a prideful newsroom, and she’s rubbing people the wrong way.”
Barr wrote, “Journalists at CBS News say that Weiss still has not laid out a clear strategy for how she wants the network to change and adapt, though she is expected to do so as soon as this week, sources say.”
CPB is no more
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced Monday that its board of directors voted to shut down the organization because Congress cut off its federal funding. CPB funded NPR, PBS and hundreds of local radio and TV stations across the country for 58 years.
In a statement, Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, said, “For more than half a century, CPB existed to ensure that all Americans — regardless of geography, income, or background — had access to trusted news, educational programming, and local storytelling. When the Administration and Congress rescinded federal funding, our Board faced a profound responsibility: CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks.”
Monday’s official announcement was expected, but that doesn’t make it any less grim.
Ruby Calvert, chair of CPB’s board of directors, said, “What has happened to public media is devastating. After nearly six decades of innovative, educational public television and radio service, Congress eliminated all funding for CPB, leaving the Board with no way to continue the organization or support the public media system that depends on it. Yet, even in this moment, I am convinced that public media will survive, and that a new Congress will address public media’s role in our country because it is critical to our children's education, our history, culture and democracy to do so.”
The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin writes, “The end of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, founded in 1968, begins a new era in public media, with local stations across the United States fighting for survival. Donations from listeners are up, and philanthropists have stepped in, but the long-term future of public TV and radio is far from certain.”
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