All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.
First Look: Flooding
Wyatt Andrews offers today's First Look at the Evening News, with stories that include the latest on the flooding in the midwest.
Video: Click the image for more.
Just Say "D'oh!"
(AP Photo/Fox Broacasting Co.)
Dictionaries have found a new master of the modern quotation to challenge the best of Oscar Wilde and Groucho Marx...Homer Simpson's creator Matt Groening.Further signs that the apocalypse is nigh.
The brains behind the world's favourite cartoon series has three new entries in the latest volume of quotations from the experts at Oxford University.
The latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations, published today, is a testament to the growing popularity and influence of characters from The Simpsons.
Homer Simpson phrases include: "Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is never try."
Another Homer quotation featured is: "Kids are the best, Apu. You can teach them to hate the things you hate. And they practically raise themselves, what with the internet and all."
Also included is the much-repeated reference to the French by the Scottish caretaker Willie who remarks: "Bonjour, you cheese-eating surrender monkeys" in a 1995 episode.
First Look: Love Late In Life
A recent study of the sex lives of senior Americans found a lot going on in the bedroom. CBS News medical producer Dorie Klissas gives a preview of the report by Dr. Jon LaPook.
Just click the image for more.
Just click the image for more.
First Look: Dean Diminishes
The two Katies -- Couric and Boyle -- offer us a First Look at the Evening News, including the latest on Hurricane Dean.
Click the image for more.
First Look: Dams In Disrepair
How's America's infrastructure? Not so good. Our Nancy Cordes previews tonight's Evening News with a First Look at structural problems that may be plaguing America's dams.
Click the image for more.
First Look: Porch Sitting
Steve Hartman once again does the First Look honors -- with a glimpse at his Assignment America feature for tonight on porch sitting in Kentucky.
Sit on your porch and click the monitor for more.
First Look: Phenom
For today's First Look, senior producer Chris Dinan previews what's coming on the Evening News, including a report about the TV phenomenon "High School Musical."
Click the monitor to watch.
First Look: A Currents Affair
Continuing to preview his series about the Arctic, Daniel Sieberg offers a First Look at the latest installment of his "Journey to the Top of the World."
Click the monitor for more.
Liar, Liar?
Tell the truth: if someone asked you some prying questions, would you lie?
A lot of people contend that's what happens with polls, and this morning Kathleen Frankovic delves into the heart of, well, "truthiness":
A lot of people contend that's what happens with polls, and this morning Kathleen Frankovic delves into the heart of, well, "truthiness":
Wander over and read the rest. Fascinating stuff. Honest.There have been campaigns to lie to pollsters. In the early 1980s, Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko told people to do it before the Illinois primary. But when CBS News conducted a short poll in the Chicago area to see whether readers would take his advice, many people said they read the column, and enjoyed what Royko had to say, but also that they wouldn't take his advice seriously. And in fact, that year's primary election poll was quite accurate.(CBS/AP)
Lying takes more mental effort than telling the truth. Telling one lie usually means you need to tell more lies. It's much easier not to say anything, or just hang up the phone — which might help explain why response rates to polls have dropped over the years. If people take the time to answer a pollster's questions, they usually try to tell the truth!
However, some answers to poll questions may not be lies, but they also may not quite be the truth. They may be the product of faulty recall, or of misremembered memories. Respondents answer the questions they are asked, but if a question requires too much effort, they may do just enough thinking to come up with a reasonable answer. Survey psychologists call this "satisficing." (a combination of "satisfying" and "sufficing").
Was That Question A Plante?
(CBS)
Yesterday, after the brief appearance President Bush made with Karl Rove, Bill decided to do what correspondents sometimes do: he yelled a question. That attracted no small amount of attention in the blogosphere, and Bill has now written about yesterday's experience over at Public Eye:
Rove has been a controversial figure in this administration, the man most often credited or blamed with framing support for the war by politicizing terrorism.Check out the rest of the story and draw your own conclusions.
There was no time to frame that question because the event this morning was a statement, not a news conference. So I asked a more direct one. I thought it unlikely that they would answer, but it's always worth a try.
This isn't the first time I've been blasted for yelling. Twenty or so years ago, I yelled a question at President Reagan as he left the Rose Garden after the annual Teacher of the Year ceremony.
One woman wrote to tell me that I was a guest in the President's house and ought to be behave as one.
Ten years ago, I asked President Clinton a question which brought a red-faced angry response.
The point is that reporters are not here as guests. We're here to ask questions.
One thing is sure: we haven't heard the last of Karl Rove. Or Bill Plante.
