CBS B.S.

Last week, Katie Couric made her debut on CBS Evening News as the first female solo news anchor. Before she even made her first broadcast, word had already come out about her promo photo, which had been altered to make her look significantly thinner. Probably not the best way to begin reporting the "news," especially when coming from "The Today Show," a program focused mostly on entertainment issues. \nIn Couric's first newscast, she seemed to be doing a good job reporting real news for a while, but it was almost like she couldn't resist the temptation to begin talking about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' baby. It's funny how most newscasters seem to change their tone when talking about entertainment. It's like they forget about the war or whatever murder they just reported on. Once all of that pointless "news" stuff is out of the way, they can talk about what really matters: TomKat. I seriously wonder if anybody actually cares about such celebrity hype. Even if millions do, it's still not news. Save it for the tabloids. \nIt's obvious that if you are reporting faux news, looking like an anorexic is very important because if you are focused on celebrities and entertainment, you should at least try to look like one. As for CBS, there is no better way to show you care about journalistic integrity than by doctoring photos. But just because Couric's photo was doctored doesn't mean the rest of CBS news is fake, right? According to an Aug. 30 article from The Associated Press, Gil Schwartz, the executive vice president of communications for CBS Corp., said CBS's photo department "services tens of thousands of photographs every year" for all parts of the company and that it "does a fantastic job." I wonder how they did with Suri Cruise. \nHow does celebrity-focused news affect society? Why do the biggest recent stories seem to be about Facebook's news feed and Katie Couric prepping for her CBS debut? Why does Katie Couric's new role appear to be generating more news than anything she has reported on this past week?\nPerhaps it is this kind of faux news reporting that is responsible for a lack of interest among the younger generation? When Facebook protesting becomes this generations biggest revolution, something must be wrong somewhere. Maybe all of us, both young and old, are too focused on celebrity gossip magazines, sports shows and broadcast news programs that report on these very issues while trying to pretend that they are legitimate news organizations. \nPerhaps this is where CBS made a good call. It realized most people don't seem to care about real issues, so what better way to embrace weak news than to hire someone who spent 15 years on "Today"? Whether she's reporting on the war in Iraq, or the latest celebrity B.S., it's always nice to have that assuring, fake smile, fake face -- and fake picture.