CBS - CBS CHIEF COMES TO COURIC'S DEFENSE

CBS Chairman Les Moonves vainly attempted to extinguish rumors that Katie Couric's days as anchor of the CBS Evening News are numbered. Making a surprise appearance at the weekly Friday meeting between Couric and Evening News exec producer Rick Kaplan, shown over closed-circuit TV to CBS news employees, Moonves said that "there are no plans for a change [of anchor], today, tomorrow and into the future." Kaplan said that it took years for Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings to rise to the top. "She's not been at it two years and everybody is writing her obituary. ... That's fine. Success is the sweetest revenge." Most TV writers failed to buy the CBS executives' support for Couric and cited network sources who maintained that Couric would be ousted if her ratings do not improve by next year's presidential inauguration.

21/04/2008