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Misjudgment At Blackrock
New York – It will soon be a year since Bob Schieffer relinquished the CBS Evening News to Katie Couric.
Her first year has not been easy, not for Couric, not for her new Executive Producer, Rick Kaplan, nor for CBS News.While the focus has been on the ratings race, there is a great deal more to the story that began with Dan Rather’s inexcusable failure to properly protect his and CBS’ credibility. Rather’s departure was neither thoughtful, nor graceful. No one, not Rather, nor CBS News, came away unscathed, for Rather’s awkward departure left CBS’ news operation adrift, suspect about its fundamental fairness, and absent clear leadership. In a business where credibility is the only stock in trade, CBS hit an al-time low.
What followed was 18 months of rebuilding behind the face and reputation of Bob Schieffer. But, absent a clear understanding of where they had been, or what was needed to reestablish its reputation CBS decided that throwing money at the problem would solve fundamental internal management failures that had gone uncorrected for years.
Foolishly assuming that a new up-front face might help to shore up the credibility Schieffer began to restore, CBS management threw caution, and Schieffer’s hard won credibility, to the wind. He was too old for the target demographic so he was replaced by someone methodically chosen to appeal to the 19-35 crowd so critical in making advertising placement decisions.
Now the question is what have we learned, not just CBS, but all of us who care about television journalism?
Is it possible that we’ve met the problem and found that it’s really us? That there’s no one else to blame it on? Not Rather . . . not even Couric? Now seems to good time to look back at CBS’ highly visible transition from credibility to entertainment values just a year ago and ask ourselves What Have We Learned?
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BoB Schieffer Handoff To Katie Couric
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