The Tiffany Network to hock its crown jewel?
posted at 7:43 am on April 8, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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The network of Edward R. Murrow has decided to outsource its reporting, according to the New York Times. CBS, which has never recovered from its insistence on airing phony documents regarding George Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard, has opened talks with Time Warner to have CNN provide most of its actual reporting. The deal would leave Katie Couric fronting the third-place CBS Evening News, but essentially presenting a CNN feed:
CBS, the home of the most celebrated news division in broadcasting, has been in discussions with Time Warner about a deal to outsource some of its news-gathering operations to CNN, two executives briefed on the matter said Monday.
Over the last decade, CNN has held intermittent talks with both ABC News and CBS News about various joint ventures. But during the last several months, talks with CBS have been revived and lately intensified, according to the executives who asked for anonymity because of the confidential nature of the negotiations.
Broadly speaking, the executives described conversations about reducing CBS’s news-gathering capacity while keeping its frontline personalities, like Katie Couric, the CBS Evening News anchor, and paying a fee to CNN to buy the cable network’s news feeds.
Another possibility, these people said, would be for CBS to keep its correspondents in certain regions but pair them with CNN crews.
It will provide an ignominious end to a storied news organization, but an entirely predictable and avoidable denouement. The end began four years ago, when its 60 Minutes II decided to allow Mary Mapes to run a badly-sourced accusation of malfeasance against Bush in the middle of a general election, and then refused to acknowledge the obviously forged memos at the heart of those allegations and the disturbed single source they used to get them.
Suddenly, it became apparent that the grown-ups at CBS News had all retired. Dan Rather went from news editor to talking head, according to his own description of his role, and no one apparently exercised the least bit of editorial control over Mary Mapes. Utterly exposed, the network finally pushed Rather from his perch and eventually hired Couric to replace him — and then insulted the intelligence of both Couric and her audience by turning the evening news into a later version of their morning show. Eventually they returned to actual news, but by then anyone serious about news had found other sources for it.
Now CBS plans to capitulate altogether. They have tried cutting deals with other news organizations for partnerships, including ABC, but simply couldn’t convince anyone to partner with their stumbling news division. Instead of cleaning house and finding people who want to focus on actual news-gathering, rather than their politically-motivated hit pieces, CBS wants to throw in the towel.
It’s an amazing decision. News has much more focus, as well as much more competition, in the age of the Internet. CBS had an opportunity at the advent of the Internet to leverage its reputation to build a strong audience for its news product, but instead ignored the new market. Now it wants to surrender entirely and have CNN do what CBS should have done on its own.
Power Line has more on this, including the latest politically-motivated hit piece from 60 Minutes.
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I’m not ashamed at all to admit that I get 75% of my TV news from FNC, with the rest coming from local stations.
I haven’t watched an alphabet news show in years, and I doubt anything will be changing that anytime soon.
Brit Hume smokes any of the alphabet shows. The Grapevine itself is reason enough to watch it.
Mortis on April 8, 2008 at 7:49 AM
The troubling thing about this is centralization of news gathering and reporting. Imagine if every network followed suit. Basically, TV news as consumed by a large number of Americans would be from a single source with a single bias no matter which network they watched.
Not good.
flipflop on April 8, 2008 at 7:50 AM
CBS or CNN what is really the difference?
Both have the same political message.
Unfortunately, unbiased news is lost among all this.
What America needs is a foreign entity that is in charge of the news on U.S. television.
Somebody or some organization from a different nation that is professional enough to present impartial, objective and accurate news with more air time and more reporting from around the world to the American public.
One of the things Americans can’t do and failed to do is:
Objective Reporting.
Indy Conservative on April 8, 2008 at 7:59 AM
Oh, you mean like BBC? Reuters? Al Jazeera? ;-)
flipflop on April 8, 2008 at 8:05 AM
Absolutely. And, don’t forget Cavuto.
Meh. So what if CBS will use the CNN feed. Will anyone be able to tell the difference?
BacaDog on April 8, 2008 at 8:09 AM
The network of Katie asking the network of Ted Turner to do its heavy lifting. That’s like GM asking a Ford Pinto plant to build its Chevy Vegas.
jgapinoy on April 8, 2008 at 8:10 AM
I understand your reply, and I knew it would come.
I was thinking about professionals in the business of News Reporting in Television, maybe a multi-national group, from Europe, Australia, Canada, America.
We’ve all experienced over the years how we can’t do that simple job by ourselves.
We went to the moon and we reported it, but we still can’t report accurately what’s happening on Earth and sometimes in our own neighborhoods.
We are lousy in the News Business.
We have to admit it and stop being arrogant.
Indy Conservative on April 8, 2008 at 8:12 AM
I was under the impression that cbs news was already in the toilet before Rathergate. I don’t want to sound like an ageist but when all their talkingheads are well into their 70s and believe facts are irrelevant, it was well past the time for forced retirements. CNN sucks though. They want to improve ratings, Fox News with Brit Hume and a bunch of Fox babes on primetime network news would kill the competition.
Blake on April 8, 2008 at 8:15 AM
Since cable news is getting close to smoking CBS Evening News in homes served, this is an intelligent financial move. CBS and CNN are equally left wing, so the pinko purists will not have a problem with it.
Take it a step further. Allow Katie to do odd jobs at CNN like reading copy on CNN Headline News overnight or operating camera during Lou Dobbs Show. This way, CBS could recoup some of its Couric investment.
saved on April 8, 2008 at 8:27 AM
The sagging roof on an old, dilapidated house in my neighborhood finally fell in. Few people had paid serious attention to the place in years. Someone told me. I hadn’t noticed myself.
JiangxiDad on April 8, 2008 at 8:27 AM
Indy Conservative on April 8, 2008 at 7:59 AM
Smart & “free people” people get things right in due time. Much to learn from the rise and fall of the MSM in America. The “fall” dynamic is still taking place as of this moment; we all are witness to this. The lessons learned will follow, and we will all be better off for it.
Corruption, political bias, echo chambers; these dynamics will surely be part of the formula leading to the total failure of the news industry to produce the intended product. The Dan Rathers effect will be studied and discussed in classrooms for decades to come.
Keemo on April 8, 2008 at 8:42 AM
The story about the Columbia Broadcast System (CBS) and the ever-fabled Edward R Murrow really needs some ‘deep background’. For example, Murrow was a character actor who simply saw a means to enhance his image by bringing true stagecraft into news reels. “This is London”, the stentorious, dramatic line became Murrow’s signature and his reputation.
‘Uncle’ Walter Cronkite, the ‘Most Trusted Man in News’ actively campaigned to make this country a laughing stock by losing in Vietnam. Eric Severied was second only to Uncle Walter in anti-American socialism. The Dan Rather/Mary Mapes episode is just one more example at typical CBS chutzpa. Katie Couric, who has been Executive Editor of the CBS Evening News since her gala coronation, is known as a small minded, egomaniac who makes Barbara Boxer or Barbra Streisand look like female Einsteins.
The Cable News Network (CNN) had a good thing going when it first rolled onto the world’s stage. Unfortunately, Ted Turner’s playtoy became infected with CBS hubris and liberal bias.
Putting lipstick on a pig still means the pig is a pig.
SeniorD on April 8, 2008 at 8:43 AM
It’s amazing that these people get paid so much money for reading the news and doing some editing. Granted, they have special powers that we mortals don’t have, i.e., they choose what we can and can not see and hear, but still, they are over paid.
Blake on April 8, 2008 at 8:50 AM
Awesome. I love it. Captain Ed, you rock!
Red Pill on April 8, 2008 at 8:53 AM
Man cannot live on schadenfreude alone, but it is a healthy part of a balanced diet.
trubble on April 8, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Now that’s funny – thanks, trubble!
drunyan8315 on April 8, 2008 at 9:08 AM
Why would CNN allow losers like Couric to “front” their hard work? Granted she’s a fair teleprompter reader, but do they think she’s not going to want to Lefty-Slant their news until it’s unrecognizable?
If you were CNN, would you risk your journalistic reputation on CBS, considering their pandering love for all things fake but damaging to Republicans?
I dislike CNN, but this is a very bad idea, unless they just plain shut down CBS news and take it over wholesale.
heldmyw on April 8, 2008 at 9:20 AM
It is a bit Orwellian, don’t you think?
Great comeback. Turning over control of all of our TV news to people who aren’t natural born citizens of the USA would make about as much sense as turning over control of the Presidency to someone who isn’t a natural born citizen.
I think DrudgeReport.com, MichelleMalkin.com, and HotAir.com are pretty awesome in the News Business. And that’s why all three of them are experiencing record traffic, while CBS is (and deserves to be) going down the tubes.
Great analogy.
Another great analogy.
Very well said.
Yes. CBS and CNN have been and continue to be tools of the socialists/communists. In my opinion, CNN stands for “Communist News Network”.
CBS using CNN’s news feeds? Birds of a feather flock together.
True.
It is fun watching the biased MSM fall apart, isn’t it?
It is another example of how power in the hands of “We the People” is better than power centralized in the hands of a few. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Red Pill on April 8, 2008 at 9:25 AM
Follow-up thought…socialism/communism is not about making things equal for everyone.
Socialism/communism is about keeping absolute power in the hands of a select few, while keeping the masses enslaved and powerless.
Even in communist countries, there are a select few people (the Communist party heads) who are extremely wealthy. The difference between here and there is that here in the USA, the land of opportunity where millions of people have immigrated, is that someone can start with nothing and have the freedom to start a small business, build it to a huge business, and become wealthy. That freedom does not exist in socialist/communist countries. Those in power don’t want anyone they don’t control to have any freedom.
In most cases, socialist/communist countries are run by godless people who actively persecute people of faith. Look at China.
Red Pill on April 8, 2008 at 9:37 AM
I had no idea that was possible….
Frozen Tex on April 8, 2008 at 9:57 AM
heh heh heh! What more needs to be said? CNN giving newsfeeds to CBS? One lies and the other one swears to it!
It’s the perfect combination!
I watch FNC and read Hot Air/Michelle Malkin! That’s all the news I need!
Vntnrse on April 8, 2008 at 10:16 AM
Everything rises and falls on leadership.
Ed is correct that CBS had an incredible opportunity and squandered it. I see two similar stories with IBM in the PC market.
1) When the IBM PC was being developed in the early 80’s, IBM had plenty of talented resources that could have written an operating system for it. In my opinion, management was short-sighted and fearful. They were afraid of Apple and thought they had to react immediately…they thought they didn’t have time to wait for their own people to write an operating system, so they gave that over to Bill Gates. Big, huge, enormous mistake.
2) In the early 1990’s, IBM had a working system to take customer orders over an 800 number, manufacture customized build-to-order PCs, and ship them directly to the customer. That process was very successful, but IBM’s other distributors didn’t like the competition and threatened to stop being distributors if IBM didn’t stop their build-to-order process. In my opinion, management was again short-sighted and fearful. They shut down the build-to-order process in order to “save” their other distribution channels. It was an amazing decision. IBM had an opportunity at the advent of the Internet to leverage its reputation to build a strong audience for its PC product. Instead, Dell got that business, and IBM eventually sold its PC business to a Chinese company…
Now, doen’t it make you feel all warm and fuzzy knowing that some of the PCs being sold to the US Government are manufactured by a Chinese company? How hard would it be for them to put malicious software into chips on the motherboard?
Red Pill on April 8, 2008 at 10:42 AM
CNN huh? Maybe that can get rid of Katie too and replace her with Keiren Chetry.
srhoades on April 8, 2008 at 10:53 AM
Break out the koolaid
Wade on April 8, 2008 at 11:54 AM
They all suck and are just there to sell us soap like some holier than thou Edward R Morrow persona.
At the end of the day our press is nothing more that a gossip fest that is keen on feeding on the misery of a few poor citizens to selfishly bolster their own stock. ( ever wonder why they incessantly repeat their own names?)
TheSitRep on April 8, 2008 at 8:26 PM
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