All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

It may have had its ups and downs, but 2008 was anything but dull.

We saw an historic primary race between Senators Clinton and Obama, and the election of our first African American president. Governor Sarah Palin captivated fans and foes alike, and Tina Fey's impersonation put SNL back on the map...

Read full post…

Out on the dance floor, you're more likely to see a bump and grind than a waltz in swing time. Techno is still more popular than tango at nightclubs.

But ballroom dancing IS stepping back into pop culture, thanks in part to the success of Dancing with the Stars. Since the start of the show, the Arthur Murray studios have seen a 60 percent increase in business.

For the rest of my Notebook, just click the monitor.

Scott Conroy is a producer at CBSNews.com.

---

As I was getting ready to leave my apartment on 88th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan this morning, I heard the helicopter circling above. I didn't think much of it until I turned on the news and saw that a crane had collapsed three blocks away.

I grabbed the small digital video camera that I had used when I was an off-air reporter covering a presidential campaign and dashed off to the scene. I thought I'd be able to get some of the first on-the-ground video of the aftermath, but in this era of citizen journalism, I was already way behind. There were already dozens of journalists—mostly the kind who don't receive paychecks for their work—wielding home movie cameras, tape recorders and cell phones. Being first on the scene of breaking news seems almost impossible now, unless, of course you are the news.

One local resident handed me a videotape he had shot from his nearby window less than five minutes after the collapse. Even though the tape was filled with home video of a family vacation, he was willing to give it up to a stranger in the hopes that CBS News might use the few moments of video he shot. In the YouTube era, it seems that almost everyone wants to help document our times.

Read full post…

Ever since he was killed in Afghanistan, the story of Pat Tillman has cast a shadow over the U.S. military.

Tillman's mother Mary speaks out in her first television interview about the tragedy this Sunday on "60 Minutes."

Just click on the video monitor for the rest of my notebook.

Hari Sreenivasan is a CBS News correspondent based in Dallas.

---

There are some ingredients which can predict whether or not a story will capture our collective attention for longer than average. This story, which pits religious practice versus child abuse, includes several; a society historically filled with secrets that whose members are visibly different from us in their dress and behavior, who have been reclusive and keep secrets partly to avoid the inevitable scrutiny and persecution that comes with disclosure of their practices, involves a layer of forbidden sex, and most perhaps most importantly, that last ingredient involves children.

For the previous week, the media sipped and sucked details through a small straw. We learned about the raid, from law enforcement, the logistics, from child protective services and the prospect of a legal quagmire unlike any that Texas had seen. We wondered how we'd ever get the viewpoint of those affected, how we'd gain access to a 1,500-acre ranch in any meaningful way other than a helicopter ride over the property?

Read full post…