Re: CBS-TV stumbles, breaks both legs, and is run over by a bus (WAS Re: SupremeCourt decision)

["Don MacMillan" <dmacmillan@mailandnews.com>]

While they ALL looked rather awkward "reading" the decision on the air...I
was thinking about how fascinating it was that I was sitting in my easy
chair at home....and  someone ws on my screen standing in front of the
supreme court and reading me a decision release just seconds ago!

I give all the networks a little leeway...I dont think I could have expected
more.

Although, it's in cases like this when it shows how important it is for the
netowrk to have some good "analysis" people in the studio and on the air.
Someone to ask "What does this mean?"

Besides the "anchors" and technical creativity....does anyone wanna comment
on the "analysis"?

Who are the best commentators/analytical people on the networks when it
comes to politcal coverage?

Chris Matthews?  Brit Hume?  Bill O'Reilley?  Hannity/Colmes?  Paula Zahn?
Russert?  Sheiffer? The bald guy on CNN?  Jeff Greenfield?  Cokey Roberts?
Stephanopolos?   ...others?

DM
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin J. Waters" <mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu>
To: <Jibguy@aol.com>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 8:59 AM
Subject: CBS-TV stumbles, breaks both legs, and is run over by a bus (WAS
Re: SupremeCourt decision)


> >jibguy wrote:
> >It's also funny to watch Dan Rather speak without a teleprompter.
> <snip>
>
>         Sad to watch, I would say. I was flipping between the three
> networks, CNN, Fox news and MSNBC, and CBS was pitiful. Once again, Rather
> came on initially going in the wrong direction as to what the decision
> meant, suggesting it was not a total win for Bush, that Gore had something
> left. He grabbed onto the remanding to the Fla. court part of it, from the
> first AP bulletin, and jumped to conclusions -- before anyone had read the
> full decision and figured out that the 5-4 part of it meant it was over.
> And everything he said involved fumbling and mumbling.
>
>         The other networks all were much better at just basically reading
> the decision on the air until eventually they figured out what it said,
and
> only then they started saying what they thought it meant. NBC was
> especially good, with two guys standing side-by-side outside the court
> (good move). And they were the first ones I saw on the air to actually
have
> copies of the decision in their hands. They were already doing their
> readings aloud when the CBS guy (Schieffer?), standing outside the court,
> was saying on the air he was still waiting for "our people" to bring a
copy
> out of the building to him.
>
>         The NBC guys took turns reading ahead and then reading sections on
> the air. They gradually started to comment on what it seemed to say. They
> knew the old trick of reading the dissenting opinions to quickly get
> succinct descriptions of the "bad" thing (according to the dissenter) that
> the majority had done.
>
>         Meanwhile, on CBS, Rather looked "small," lost, stumbling around.
> Well into the hour, he was doing a bad job of reading quotes from the
> decision that he said had come from Reuters or the AP. Maybe CBS never got
> its copy. And, everything that was done around Rather made it all look
> worse. Everything was wrong, right down to the camera shot was too far up
> above him and the camera shot was not close enough in on him. The others
> were switching at a fast pace between many reporters and others. CBS just
> looked sleepy and slow. At one point CBS had some unknown talking-head law
> professor speaking in the same monotone as Rather, blabbing on and saying
> nothing as far as I could discern. I punched back to it 10 minutes later,
> and the same guy was either on again or still on. CBS seemed to be
bringing
> fewer of its "people" on. Maybe they were still trying to find a copy of
> the decision. The slow pace left Rather on the air much more to show off
> his bad performance. The entire CBS operation looked like everyone working
> on it needed a couple vitamin pills and a jumbo coffee with extra
caffeine.
> And I'm being kind <g>.
>
>         Is anyone else old enough to remember when CBS was the best? :)
>
>
>
>