The Laughing Gas Is Wearing Off

Why did Katie Couric fall to third place in a matter of days? Jon Friedman has three ideas:

“a) America clearly didn’t trust Katie during the biggest news story of the season, the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001;

b) CBS’ hype for the new evening news performed much like laughing gas does on a dental patient, lasting for only a brief time before reality — and pain — sets in again;

c) some of the innovations aren’t fulfilling their promise and seem to smack of making change for the sake of making change (and securing splashy headlines) and nothing else.”

Here’s the full column…