Monday, November 19, 2007

"Nobody Wears a Trenchcoat with the Collar Down"

There have been many online conversations about the merits of Katie Couric's experience and background. She's been criticized and panned by most of the critics in TV news, and ratings for the CBS Evening News are the lowest they have ever been since Neilson began keeping track.

I have to admit... I don't mind her performance on the Evening News. But that's what it looks like, a performance, not a delivery, of the news. I long for Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather.

But the following video, posted to Harry Shearer's website mydamnchannel.com, catches Katie, prior to performing a liveshot, making fun of Dan Rather. And you can kind of see why she hasn't really appealed to a wider viewing audience.



Now, on the other hand, it is kind of funny to watch Dan Rather spend a silly amount of time trying to figure out whether or not to wear the coat prior to a live shot in Seattle several years back in his pre-scandal anchoring days.

This is the video that Katie references in the above clip, also posted to Harry Shearer's mydamnchannel.com:



Incidentally, Dan Rather is known to get his wardrobe, which may have also included that trench coat, from the same Saville Row tailor that the venerable Edward R. Murrow used when he was stationed in London for CBS.

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