Alissa Krinsky
TVNewser Contributor
“Who is filing for divorce here?” asks former longtime CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg, referring to a possible split between CBS News and Katie Couric — a story first reported in the Wall Street Journal. The buzz at CBS, Goldberg says, is “that it was her side that got the story leaked. My sources at CBS tell me that the brass at CBS was very unhappy yesterday.”
Goldberg, now with HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and the author of Crazies To The Left Of Me, Wimps To The Right, has more to say:
• On why Couric’s broadcast hasn’t gotten better ratings: “Probably, the perception by the public that she didn’t have the gravitas that [the public is] accustomed to in an evening anchor…It almost didn’t matter what the newscast was about. It just mattered how she was perceived.”
• On having Couric stay in the anchor chair until a possible departure date: “How are you going to have a lame duck in that seat? Does that look good?”
Goldberg on the future of the Evening News, the current status of the Tiffany network, and morale at the Eye…after the jump.
> More, from a CBS insider: “Bernie Goldberg has created a career as a biased, highly publicized nag and provocateur concerning CBS News. He purports to know what CBS News executives think, but he’s never worked with those executives here. His notorious disloyalty and meanness of spirit is matched only by his ignorance of what’s really going on at CBS News.”
> More, More, from Bernard Goldberg: “Looks like I hit a nerve. I had the guts to put my name on my observations. The CBS insider, who won’t tell his name or even what he does at CBS News, obviously is afraid to let us know who he is. That alone says a lot.”
• About morale at CBS News, Goldberg’s sources tell him that “it’s just nonexistent.”
• On speculation that CBS might get rid of the Evening News altogether, Goldberg says it won’t happen, because “that would be very bad p.r.”
• About who might succeed Couric, Goldberg has a “prediction that I have no confidence in”: “CBS will go back to the future, and put Bob Schieffer back in the chair, ‘temporarily’, just like the last time, until they can figure out what the hell they’re doing over there.”
• On the prestigious history of CBS News: “This, once upon a time, was the Tiffany network. I’d say it’s approaching the KMart network, except I’d have to say it with apologies to KMart.”
• On speculation CBS might outsource news gathering to CNN: “If they do that, write the obituary for CBS News, it is over.”
• His advice to Couric on her next career steps: “She should find something she enjoys, and just do it.”
• Earlier: 5 Questions For…Bernard Goldberg from last September, in which Goldberg predicted, “America refuses to take Katie seriously. So she’s out.”