7cba21706262338ac937…

These days the main stream media and many people are slamming CEOs for “outrageous” salaries and “over-the-top” stock bonus plans. It’s not fair for those executives to be paid “200 times” more than their avera…

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?)

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.
posted at 7:43 am on April 8, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

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?

I watch FNC and read Hot Air/Michelle Malkin! That’s all the news I need!

and then insulted the intelligence of both Couric and her audience

I had no idea that was possible….

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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.

flipflop on April 8, 2008 at 7:50 AM

It is a bit Orwellian, don’t you think?

flipflop on April 8, 2008 at 8:05 AM

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.

We are lousy in the News Business.
Indy Conservative on April 8, 2008 at 8:12 AM

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.

jgapinoy on April 8, 2008 at 8:10 AM

Great analogy.

JiangxiDad on April 8, 2008 at 8:27 AM

Another great analogy.

Keemo on April 8, 2008 at 8:42 AM

Very well said.

‘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.

Putting lipstick on a pig still means the pig is a pig.

SeniorD on April 8, 2008 at 8:43 AM

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.

Blake on April 8, 2008 at 8:50 AM

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.

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.

Man cannot live on schadenfreude alone, but it is a healthy part of a balanced diet.

Now that’s funny – thanks, trubble!

Lucy Ramirez is handling the contracts.
Apr 8, 2008 7:43 AM by Ed Morrissey

Awesome. I love it. Captain Ed, you rock!

Katie Couric, who has been Executive Editor of the CBS Evening News since her gala coronation . . .

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.

‘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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Absolutely. And, don’t forget Cavuto.

Meh. So what if CBS will use the CNN feed. Will anyone be able to tell the difference?

Indy Conservative on April 8, 2008 at 7:59 AM

Oh, you mean like BBC? Reuters? Al Jazeera? ;-)

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.