All Blog Posts from Public Eye

Each week we invite someone from outside PE to weigh in with their thoughts about CBS News and the media at large. This week, we asked Susan Tifft, a professor at Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, a veteran journalist and author of several books. In advance of Katie Couric's first day on the broadcast next Tuesday, Susan lays out a few of her suggestions for the "Evening News." As always, the opinions expressed and factual assertions made in “Outside Voices” are those of the author, not ours, and we seek a wide variety of voices. Here’s Susan:

The run-up to Labor Day is typically a slow period in the news business and this week proved to be no exception. CBS News, along with the other networks, focused heavily on the weather (Tropical Storm Ernesto and the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina), accidents (Comair flight 5191), and crime (the collapse of murder charges against John Mark Karr and the arrest of fugitive polygamist Warren Steed Jeffs).

So instead of looking back over the week's coverage, which would inevitably mean adding one more voice to the chorus decrying the media circus surrounding the JonBenet Ramsey case (an exercise in excess in which CBS News was largely complicit), let's shoot forward to the fall, that traditional back-to-school moment of new shoes, sharpened pencils, and fresh starts.

And what a fresh start CBS has: a boffo new anchor in Katie Couric (who's snagged an interview with President Bush for her first broadcast), a revamped format for the “Evening News,” a simulcast on the Web site, and high expectations for a ratings spike. I'm looking forward to watching it unfold. But not before stuffing a few last-minute thoughts into the suggestion box. Here's my personal wish-list for changes in the CBS “Evening News”...

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