Unfortunately I have found out that many viewers are afraid of change. The glory days of TV news are over, and the media landscape has been dramatically changed. News is available now for everyone, everywhere, all the time, and everybody fights for the last pieces of the shrinking pie. The corporate pressure and the ratings terror are intensifying all the time, and the situation is not simple. I find myself in the last bastion of male dominance, and realizing what Hillary Clinton might have realized not long ago: that sexism in the American society is more common than racism, and certainly more acceptable or forgivable. In any case, I think my post and Hillary's race are important steps in the right direction."

It is virtually impossible to argue against the notion that both Hillary Clinton and Katie Couric faced repeated, institutionalized instances of sexism. But it's puzzling that Couric brings this up in the context of race — jumping into the argument over whether women or minorities are more aggrieved in America.

How has Couric's own professional experience taught her anything about the prevalence of racism versus the prevalence of sexism? It's all too easy to leap to the conclusion that she's talking in this case not so much about herself as about the Democratic primary — about Barack Obama, and about how he, as some Clinton supporters like Geraldine Ferraro argued, faced fewer obstacles as a black man than Clinton did as a white woman.

Is that really a debate in which Couric wants to take sides? Because it's hard to see how it would be particularly wise for her, as a network evening news anchor, to do so. Unless she's angling for Keith Olbermann's job..

[Haaretz via Tabloid Baby]

From the Times:

In the last couple of weeks Mr. Obama has graced the front of Rolling Stone for the second time this year, and the cover of Us Weekly (both of which are owned by the company of a prominent Obama supporter, Jann S. Wenner). Beth Jacobson, a spokeswoman for Wenner Media, said the issues were among the better-selling magazines of the year.

Ned Martel, the deputy editor of Men’s Vogue, said, “He’s what is called in the magazine world an ‘interest driver.’ ” The magazine put Mr. Obama on its cover in 2006 and recently dispatched the photographer Annie Leibovitz to produce another spread for a coming issue. It did a feature on Mr. McCain in 2006 as well that did not make the cover.

So, basically, Obama drives ratings, which makes sense. He's a fresh face. McCain is more familiar to the media due to his longer tenue as a senator and his 2000 presidential campaign.

What should McCain do to get more attention for himself? You have to love this suggestion, from "one news executive:"

“If McCain went to Vietnam, all three anchors would jump at the chance to go with him.” This executive requested anonymity to speak candidly.

Excellent: A Rambo trip!! Which might sound crazy at first, but all bets are off when you do a professional wrasslin' video and refer to your supporters as "McCainians."

Also, Michelle Obama will not join Barack in Iraq or anywhere else on the trip to make her customary "God Damn Whitey" speech, because she will be raising her daughters, at home, like a proper Christian.

[Times]

Ripped out of the context of the Evening News, Couric is charming and fresh, particularly when filmed next to stodgy Charles Gibson of ABC News. But it's not clear Americans want their TV news anchors charming and fresh, and that's probably why CBS producers have not promoted the YouTube channel, which has received just 19,000 views (some individual clips did better).

But the success of attractive, downright whimsical anchor Anderson Cooper at CNN should help producers make up their minds. For all his blushy, coquettish on-camera moments, there's little doubt Cooper would be taken seriously reprising the sort of coverage that raised his profile in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Nor does arguably hunky (*chokecough*) Keith Olbermann at MSNBC have trouble getting his "special comments" taken seriously, despite his repeated silly antics, like impersonating a pirate version of Rupert Murdoch.

Likewise, it's no sexist knock against Couric's potential as a newscaster to say she reveals attractive, inviting, authentic glimmers of herself on the YouTube channel, one that might serve the former Today host well in an environment more receptive to her talents than the Evening News has thus far been.

[LA Times]

• Phil Griffin, senior vice president of NBC News: Pleads innocent to "sexism."
• Rem Rieder, editor of American Journalism Review: "She got some tough coverage at times, but she brought that on herself."
• Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia j-school: "I have not had a lot of regretful conversations with high-ranking media types."
• Candy Crowley, CNN reporter: "did not see a drumbeat of sexism in the daily reporting, 'but I certainly did see it in the commentary.'"
• Howard Dean, Democratic Party chair, "not a regular viewer of cable television, is taking up the cause after hearing an outcry... Clinton 'got treated the way a lot of women got treated their whole lives.'"
• Jeff Greenfield, CBS reporter: "People’s perception of the press has been in line with what they wanted to happen politically."
• Allida M. Black, founder of WomenCount PAC: "the media... robbed her of any shot she might have had."
• Kim Gandy, National Organization for Women: "Michelle Obama will be the recipient of the same kind of attacks that Hillary was."

[Times]

The new anchor is Laurence Ferrari, whom the Telegraph describes as "an experienced anchorwoman and recently voted France's most glamorous journalist." Here's the funny thing: the old guy, Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, did not make friends with President Sarkozy when he called him a "little boy" a while back. Ferrari, on the other hand, has had to deny rumors of an affair with Sarkozy that supposedly took place before he met his wife Carla Bruni.

And Sarkozy is good buddies with the head of the network, who was a witness at the wedding and is a godfather to Sarkozy's son.

So basically this is like if Barack Obama was good friends with CBS head Sumner Redstone, and had convinced him to replace genial old Bob Sheiffer with Katie Couric, whom he allegedly had had an affair with.

Or like if Bush had gotten rid of Dan Rather. And had had an affair with Bob Sheiffer?

Anyway, scandal!

French TV turmoil as 'Sarkozy's glamorous blonde' takes limelight [Telegraph]

• Having lost his criminal case, famed spin-class grunter Stuart Sugarman sued Christopher Carter, who manhandled his stationary bike, in civil court. He also sued his gym, Equinox. [Daily News]
• Rum scion Anton Bacardi owes alimony in New Jersey, but it's unclear if authorities will be able to track him down, since he's often in Dubai and supposedly friends with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. [Post]
• Wait, Katie Couric was dancing with Jimmy Fallon? [P6]
• Mary-Kate Olsen tried to get into an SUV but did a Lindsay Lohan-style drunk fall instead. There's video. [LA Rag Mag]
• Bill Murray's wife accused him of being an abusive sex addict. The actor is now accusing her of being a child-abusing drunkard, and has a police report to prove it. [P6]
• Actress Tori Spelling gave birth to daughter Stella Doreen McDermott. Her other child, Liam, is one year old. [OK!]
• Brandon Davis continues to be a mooching greaseball, but this time in the Hamptons. Yay for seasonal gossip! [P6]

Word is that he's going on vacation next week for two weeks — DURING SWEEPS — this is a show that under Shelley Ross you couldn't take off even if you died — and that he won't be returning to the network after his vacation.

Yes — he has been pushed out of the Evening News and the Early Show.

Word is that a senior producer Shelley hired from Canada will be the next EP — but that could be a tough sell b/c well he has NO news experience. He was the EP of a program in Canada titled "Gay TV."

Things are still tough at the morning show — in fact a senior producer David Shenfeld — who has lost all his power to Laurye Blackford — in fact just didn't come to work starting last Sunday — just didn't bother to call or e-mail anyone. Apparently he was so fed up and frustrated he just decided to come to work. Really professional.

Btw — Rick is having a staff meeting on Friday — I'm sure no one over there will admit that he's leaving — but what a shame — he really tried to get the show to a better place after the Shelley debacle...and now he's being pushed out. You gotta wonder what the execs are really doing there except reading staffers' e-mails.

"King did not secure a guarantee to continue anchoring the 9 p.m. hour, which - I am reliably told - opens the door wide for Couric when she leaves CBS after the inauguration, as she almost certainly will," wrote columnist Verne Gay

This may not be the exact opportunity that returns Couric to the glory she tasted in 15 years at Today. King's agent is already dumping on (though not refuting) Newsday's story, saying King's new contract is "the exact same deal and job that Larry has been doing."

But the now-positive King-Couric chatter is a reminder that Couric's ill-chosen move to the evening anchor chair is a career chapter she will eventually put behind her, and that the same media recently airing her many problems will eventually start talking about her comeback.

Here's more from Verne Gay at Newsday on why Couric's redemption might occur at CNN:

Without giving Larry a lock on 9 p.m., CNN is finally laying the groundwork for a 9 p.m. succession plan and in fact, CNN appears to have the luxury to do so: Its first quarter ratings were the best in years, and the one-time whipping post of FNC is finally doing a little butt-kicking of its own. There's a simple reality factor at work here as well: King'll be 75 this November, and while we can all agree his tenure has been a remarkable one, nothing - and no one - lasts forever. Nor is anyone untouchable in this business - even Walter Cronkite, whose exit from the anchor chair was assured in 1981 when Dan Rather, then a superstar, forced the issue.

[Newsday]

There's an outside chance of a debate in Indiana in May, but for some reason Couric won't be allowed to host that one. If Couric leaves her CBS anchor job right after the election as some people expect, she'll lose her inside track on debate hosting for future presidential elections, and will have to content herself with inviting candidates to crack jokes on her fake comedy news show or whatever she ends up hosting. [Times]

"Moonves asked to address the Friday staff meeting, held at the CBS News offices in New York and broadcast to network bureaus around the world, out of concern that Couric is being portrayed as a lame duck and that his support for the news division is the subject of media speculation. He said he was "proud" of Couric and that CBS was lucky to have her. Moonves said he cared about the ratings of the third-place 'CBS Evening News' 'as much as I care about 'CSI's' ratings.'"

Yeah, that'll boost morale around the news division. Schmuck. [Washington Post via Poynter.org]

Couric only signed on "after [Dan] Rather, after [Bob] Schieffer, after John Roberts and Mika Brzezinski and everyone else who wasn't good enough before [Moonves] decided his star had to be Couric, and the star-cross'd imbroglio began. It's Moonves who will ultimately have to decide that it's worth the money and the stress and the time to do it all over again, for the sake of a sputtering half-hour per day of news in an all-but-obsolete form. Any of you think he'll be up for it?" [HuffPo]

Nah. But I do hope Katie moves on to something better. Something that doesn't hide her freaking legs!

What Blodget means is, who at this meeting handed the story to the Journal. He thinks it had to be one of the attendees—"CBS CEO Les Moonves, CBS News president Sean McManus, Katie's agent, Alan Berger of the Creative Artists Agency, and Katie herself"—but it really could've been anyone who heard about the meeting second- or third-hand. Regardless, the 'WSJ' story made it seem like CBS was dumping Katie to save money and "cap a difficult episode for CBS." The Times sounds a bit more like Katie just hates the job.

Of course, having Katie leave on her own volition would be embarrassing for CBS, but in the long run quite a bit less damaging than forcing her out and having her sue for a couple million, like one of their last anchors did.

Anyway she won't go host Larry King Live now because a) Larry King will never retire and b) that job is Seacrest's, dammit.

[Silicon Alley Insider]

No decision about Couric's future emerged from the Feb. 28 meeting. But when the substance of the talks was leaked to the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, Couric became dejected and now might leave within "the next few weeks," according to the Times' sources.

It is not clear whether the leak was a malicious move on the part of someone inside CBS to nudge Couric out the door, but similar gossip has sometimes been deployed in TV news to usher out unwanted personalities (see, for one example, David Hartman here). According to the Times, CBS executives are "adamant" Couric will stay at least through the election.

The Times story ended with a "close associate" saying it is doubtful Couric will complete her contract.

[Times]

At the Evening News, Couric is swimming against the tide of history. Old-aged viewers don't like change, and young viewers cannot be lured in to a national news broadcast because they're too busy reading their news online and watching the Daily Show. In fact, the only significant credit Couric has gotten for connecting with young people is when she was in the gossip columns for dating a man 16 years her junior.

Couric is also struggling with a network news budget that was chopped approximately in half over the course of nine years, to about $35 million. Her salary, mind you, is $15 million, and Couric has a taste for expensive enterprise work. "People are pissed about Katie because she’s soaking up the money and she’s not making any money," one producer told New York magazine last year.

Couric's big-budget ambitions were developed, of course, at Today, which makes around $250 million per year. Her run, which began in 1991 and became the longest in Today show history, was a key part of one of the biggest success stories in television news.

As Ken Auletta wrote in a 2006 New Yorker story, Couric's chipper personality, mocked in her current role, felt fresh and effortless at Today:

[Jeff] Zucker, who was then twenty-six and beginning his own rise at NBC, told people, "Katie’s the most natural person I’ve ever seen in this role." He would hold the camera on her wide, slightly crooked smile, and Couric, for her part, played the role of a regular girl, with a safe pinch of irreverence. She helped loosen up Today, including the sometimes aloof [co-host Bryant] Gumbel. Once, he turned to her and asked whether her daughter slept through the show.

"Only during your interviews!" she replied with a grin.

This video, which shows one of Couric's first appearances on Today and then one of her last, gives a flavor of the times:

Following the death of her husband from colon cancer in 1998, Couric did commendable work raising awareness about the disease. Her live colonoscopy and other segments produced a 20 percent increase in colon cancer screenings dubbed "the Katie Couric Effect."

But the anchor, a newly single mom, then began acting moody and unbalanced, according to Auletta's piece. The Times magazine reported she went through five assistants in five years. This is also when the anchor started wearing short skirts, which became something of a trademark, and a rallying point for detractors, who said she always seemed to find a way to show them off. She was said to be "tone-deaf" to the concerns of coworkers, for example with her late studio arrivals, a charge that would haunt her at CBS, primarily over her spending but also in her jostling with colleagues for interviews.

Finally bored after 15 years at Today, Couric was brought to CBS by Les Moonves, who figured, in typical Holywood executive fashion, that a big personality could turn around his third-place Evening News. She may have had the novelty of being America's first female news anchor, but Couric could not make her signature interviews short enough for nighttime audiences. With producer Rome Hartman she burned through several bad ideas, including guest-commentator segment "freeSpeech" and the too-casual newscast opening, "Hi, everyone."

After an initial ratings initial spike, viewership resumed its decline (as shown in the Wall Street Journal's Nielsen chart at left). Veteran producer Rick Kaplan was brought in to replace Hartman but, by restoring a classic format, has merely leveled out ratings. Worse, his energies are now split with the CBS Early Show. (Around the time Kaplan took over, a different producer was fired over a plagiarized Couric Web post, which proved a minor distraction from the ratings mess.)

Couric can still be fun to watch in a more relaxed context, as shown in an unguarded moment during the New Hampshire primary in January. A young 51, she still has the spunk of the fresh college graduate who broke into journalism by showing up unannounced at network newsrooms. It makes no sense that Couric is wasting her time fighting the inevitable at the Evening News when she can deploy her remaining charm elsewhere, like from behind Larry King's old desk at CNN. Maybe she's finally realized that.

The Journal cited anonymous network executives and sources close to Couric in its report. An CBS spokeswoman denied "plans for any changes regarding Katie," and a spokeswoman for Couric issued a statement that didn't address the matter.

Couric may end up replacing Larry King on CNN, the newspaper speculated:

One possible new job for the Ms. Couric: succeeding Larry King at CNN. Mr. King, who is 74 years old, has a contract with the network into 2009. CNN President Jon Klein, a CBS veteran with close ties to some at the network, has expressed admiration for Ms. Couric's work, and the two are friends. They had lunch in late January, and the anchor attended Mr. Klein's birthday party in March. Time Warner Inc.'s CNN said, "Larry King is a great talent who consistently delivers the highest profile guests, and we have no plans to make a change." Through a publicist, Mr. King declined to comment.

Mr. King's talk-show slot at CNN might be a better fit than evening-newscast anchor for Ms. Couric, who is 51. She made her reputation as a skilled interviewer when she was an anchor at the "Today" show on General Electric Co.'s NBC network.

Ratings for the Evening News have remained mired in third place for the 18 months of Couric's tenure. In fact, after an initial spike, Couric, once known as "America's Sweetheart," has never exceeded the ratings of her predecessor Bob Schieffer, the sort of conventional anchor she was supposed to zoom right past.

[WSJ]

Like another contributor in the current issue, Jay McInerney, Johnson is a novelist: he won the National Book Award for his novel Tree of Smoke. Like McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City (who covers Art Basel in Miami as if the art show were merely an extension of his sodden New York nights), Johnson is out of place in a business magazine, or in fact-based journalism, for that matter.

The Tree of Smoke author's mission was to "touch" the oil pipeline and, presumably, convey the majesty as only a novelist can. He barely made it out of the Sheraton hotel's breakfast room in Erbil, staying within the safe confines of American-friendly Kurdistan. Our informant tells Gawker that Portfolio's Bill Tonelli, a favorite of editor Joanne Lipman and the commissioning editor on the piece, kept the draft to himself for two weeks while he himself phoned Iraq to work some facts into the story.

Johnson was impressed by the economic vitality of Kurdistan. Why hasn't it been recognized by journalists from the New York Times and CNN, he wonders. "Here's a guess, just one possibility: because journalists are pimps for war, my friends, in burgundy velvet suits. And that's the news from here." Here's another guess, just one possibility: because real reporters do, occasionally, leave the five-star hotels that so impressed Portfolio's coddled author.

So, has Joanne Lipman's vain effort, to turn novelists into business journalists, finally run its course? Don't bank on it. Portfolio's brittle editor, famously ignorant of journalistic precedent, has the ambition to nurture writers in the way that GQ and Talk once managed, and a long wish list to work through. Top of her list: best-selling creator of Alex Cross, the African-American forensic psychologist, James Patterson.

Addendum: Where is Howell Raines, Portfolio's media critic? When the former New York Times editor was appointed, the magazine did say that his first column would be in March, on coverage of the election. So we're not ringing the alarm just yet. But he did, say our spies, submit an earlier column on Katie Couric, which would have been for the current issue. Pretty dated, and thin, we hear. "No one bothered checking to see if he could actually write a column and no one asked him for ideas before announcing his signing. He apparently didn't take too well to being edited."

• 1. Katie Couric, at the extreme left of our chart, is so heavily disliked by Republican viewers that the new CBS anchor might as well be a communist.
• 2. By calculating the balance of Democratic and Republican opinion, we arrayed the anchors across the political spectrum: nearly two-thirds of the anchors slant left, at least in respondents minds; but the right-wing anchors of Fox News are the most polarizing.
• 3. Viewers are surprisingly indifferent to Lou Dobbs: I would have thought the CNN anchor's anti-immigration stance would have won him more conservative fans.
• 4. Disliked by all political tribes: CNN's diaper-wearing Larry King; oh-so-serious Wolf Blitzer; Fox's token liberal, Alan Colmes; CNN's graceless Nancy Grace and Scientologist Greta Van Susteren.
• 5. All things to all people: ABC nightly news anchor Charlie Gibson; NBC's Brian Williams; and, surprisingly, CNN's silver fox, Anderson Cooper. (Better not let the social conservatives know that he likes Latin men!)

Methodology: Harris asked respondents for the three most liked and disliked TV personalities; we took the net totals for survey participants who also gave a political affiliation. For instance, 42% of Republicans liked Bill O'Reilly, and 10% disliked him, giving him a net approval rating among Republicans of 32%, indicated by the substantial red bar under his name. Only 11% of Democrats said they liked the controversial Fox News anchor, and 34% named him one of their least favorite news figures, giving him a net approval rating among Democrats of negative 23%, marked by the blue bar stretching below the x-axis.

Take Riches' suit against CNN hairmonger Lou Dobbs (Filed Oct. 07, closed Oct. 07). Dobbs stood accused of promoting racism against immigrants, defamation of character, treason, and generally "Gestapo Nazi SS" tactics that caused irreparable harm to Riches. Kind of true? Sure! Good for $200 million from a federal judge? Sorry, no. We called Dobbs' rep to see if he was recovering from the stress of this suit, but she hasn't gotten back to us yet, strangely.

Riches doesn't win cases ever, as far as we can tell. But plenty of suits are still pending! Like the one he filed this week against David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, for working as X-files agents to "illegally incarcerate me under Bookes and fanfan." Or the other one he filed earlier this week against Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria for giving his fingerprints to neoconservative Interpol agents to set him up on bogus fraud charges. Or the other one he filed this week against drab media mogul Mort Zuckerman for his contributions to Riches' "24 hour abuse/ torture/ beatings." Mercy!

Riches hasn't sued Nick Denton yet, but it's only a matter of time now. Or maybe he'll be thankful to us for helping him blow the cover off the Katie Couric-rat poop-Jewish Mossad connection. The evidence is all here: