KORPORATE KEWPIE DOLL

-by Noah

A few days ago, I posted a list of media slime who the corporate masters would have us believe bring us the "hard hitting news" and bring it with integrity, truth, justice and the American way. On my list, I made sure to  include Katie Couric, lead face of the SeeBS Evening "News", and a face is all she is. There ain’t nothin’ else there. Might as well have a high school cheerleader deliver the news by signaling it with her pom-poms, like a flag guy on an aircraft carrier. I suggested that a better job for her would be QVC hostess. One DWT reader even mildly objected to my sullying the fine reputation of QVC. Hey, it’s not QVC in itself. My wife happens to keep them in business with her daily multiple purchases. It’s just the mindless chit-chat of the hostesses that bugs me. So it is with the current version of the SeeBS news program. Murrow wrote the book. Cronkite was the most trusted man in America. Rather? Well, at least he was a professional reporter, if far from perfect. Volumes have been written about how news went happy-face and jumped into the world of info-tainment. Please leave that to Jon Stewart. He gets it.

Since my post Katie has rather bizarrely gone public with her "thoughts" on why her show "is in trouble" (SeeBS parlance) or "has utterly failed and gone down like the Hindenberg" as we in the reality based world would put it. In the echoing canyons of her cranium, it’s all because the public "wasn’t ready for her." No Katie, it’s because the show just isn’t very good. Case in point: Last night you included a report from Nancy Cordes on the deterioration of our nation’s highway system. As one who drives on interstates, I have certainly noticed the increase in large and extraordinarily deep potholes and cracks in the roadways. It’s a rough ride out there. I have seen cars with broken axels along the roadside. I, myself destroyed a muffler simply by driving on U.S. 78. I have seen the increase of jack-knifed trailer trucks. You hit some of these open pits at 70 miles and hour and it’s just a matter of whether it’s your time or not. I don’t drive at night anymore and it’s not just because of my aging night vision or the increase in suicidal deer. Surely, people have lost their lives who wouldn’t have if the roads were in good repair. Katie’s report dealt with such issues as the holes and mentioned a shortfall of $1.9 Billion for just state highway repair in Pennsylvania alone. The blame was placed on "rising costs" and the fact that the gas tax has not gone up in almost 14 years. Rising costs? Have costs of anything ever gone down? In the history of mankind? [Editor: labor.]

No, but the key word is T-A-X. Do the math. Almost 14 years ago takes us back to the Gingrich Repug Contract On America Congress, a Congress that was firmly in Republicrank tax cuts for the wealthy hands until a few months ago. Gee, I wonder where the money to repair highways comes from? Ya want better highways? Let the gas tax keep pace with inevitable rising costs. As things are now, the average American has to pay more than $330 per year on highway caused auto repairs. What about their rising costs? Better yet, keep the gas tax where it is and go back to putting a progressive, fair and equitable tax code on the books so that the wealthy have to pay the same percentage the rest of us have to pay every year. That might raise some money for infrastructure! Under Bush, the amount the wealthy pay is headed down to 15%, a small fraction of what they paid when the interstate system was proposed and designed under President Eisenhower (a Republican President back when a few Republicans were actually OK human beings who thought about making the country better for more than just themselves). Katie’s report left this out for some reason. I can’t help but wonder why. You want viewers Katie? Then how about growing some smarts and a nose for in depth reporting. Get a reputation for telling it truthfully. Viewers will follow. The public may be slow, but they get it a lot faster than your corporate masters. I know you don’t want to offend the oil companies, but, maybe a higher rated show could make up for any sponsor losses by attracting some new advertisers. You could even charge them more. Tell them rising ratings have led to, let’s see, rising costs! Where’s the Katie that increased awareness of colon cancer? That Katie contributed to society.