What If A White Guy Didn’t Get Katie Couric’s Job? Here’s A Diverse Short List For CBS

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by Mark Joyella | 2:40 pm, April 13th, 2011

» 27 comments

If the rampant but rather bland buzz is to be believed, CBS News will tap 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley as the next anchor of the CBS Evening News, replacing the soon-to-depart (and almost certainly daytime-bound) Katie Couric. (Couric herself even talked about the advantages of being in daytime during a visit to NBC’s TODAY this morning)

By all accounts, Pelley’s a great guy, well-liked at CBS News, and a fine choice to inherit the chair once owned by Walter Cronkite. Picking Pelley would reshuffle the evening news anchor deck, returning it to mostly white guys, with ABC’s Diane Sawyer the only exception. But what if CBS decided on a more diverse choice? Who’s out there? Is there anybody worth a look?

We asked Eric Deggans, TV/Media critic for the St. Pete Times for a short list.

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Gwen Ifill

Eric's Take: "I say this every time a big anchor job comes up because the host of PBS’ NewsHour is so good and network TV needs more diversity in its top voices. CBS could chart an ambitious new news course with one smart hire."

Lester Holt

Eric's Take: "Contracts and networks aside, Holt may be one of the most underappreciated anchors on network TV. Able to vault from reporting in Afghanistan to trading recipe tips on the Today show, he's made his old school anchorman style fit the new requirements of the 24-7 anchor."

Michele Norris

Eric's Take: Michele Norris -- "She's co-hosting NPR's All Things Considered now, but she was an accomplished correspondent with ABC News for years before, with stints at the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. She would face all the challenges of an outsider with the added uphill battle of returning to TV. But with years outside the network TV bubble, she's been covering the world for one of the biggest new organizations in the country."

Russ Mitchell

Eric's Take: "Often, weekend and backup anchors seem to be chosen because they pose little threat to the main people. But Mitchell has been an ace anchor for CBS over many years; a utility player who has covered every anchor slot needed, from weekend work to news reports on The Early Show. And as a longtime CBs News guy, he knows the organization well as anyone."

CBS Evening News, CBS News, Diane Sawyer, Eric Deggans, Gwen Ifill, Katie Couric, Lester Holt, Michele Norris, Russ Mitchell

The Lantern of Truth

Cornell West is not busy .
An Idea

Wanda Sykes . At least it would be funny , and she’s a liberal as required .
Barack Must Go

I vote for soon to be impeached former president Barack Obama. He’s got it all including he’s is or was: black / white, muslim / Christian, African / American, against war / before he was for war, against raising debt ceiling as unAmerican / before he was for raising debt ceiling..still unAmerican, destroy Wall Street / look at how great Wall Street is doing…resession over, don’t drill / drill / oh wait I’ve changed my mind don’t drill, ice cream / frozen yogurt.

He’s got enough material ( bull____ ) he could keep the simpleton left ( Katie’s current audience ) interested for years.
More Liberty5

Why do they have to be black Mark? Why can’t they be hispanic, or Asian? Oh yeah right…..white guilt.
MrTPar_taY

A better question is what if a white guy got Shaquille O’Neal’s job?
http://www.perceptionasreality.blogspot.com/ skoorbekim

Charles Payne?
Star Parker?
JC Watts?
http://www.perceptionasreality.blogspot.com/ skoorbekim

More Liberty5 said:
Why do they have to be black Mark?

Wrong question,
why do they have to be Liberal?
rubberneck

Gwen iFill or Norris are not qualified for the position. They are commentators.
http://www.perceptionasreality.blogspot.com/ skoorbekim

rubberneck said:
Gwen iFill or Norris are not qualified for the position. They are commentators.

I wonder how Gwen’s book on Obama is selling?
Dem4Ever

Hey Mark, you got a problem with White guys?
OxyCon

Gwen Awfil? LMFAO! Give me a break, man!
Harry Flashman

If we’re talking about news talent on the same level, then:

Larry
Moe
Curly
Harpo Marx
Secretariat
Cheetah (The chimp, not the cat)
Tiny Tim
The Sea Monkeys I had in aquarium as a kid

I suspect Cheetah may be above Couric’s pay grade but I included him on the list anyway.
BadGenome

What if we didn’t obsess over the color of a person’s skin and what they do (or don’t) have dangling betwixt their legs?
Barack Must Go

skoorbekim said:
Charles Payne?
Star Parker?
JC Watts?

Hey don’t try selling Payne out to the enemy. Besides Charles would totally blow that whole ‘ black man can’t conservative ‘ right out of the liberal dismal swamp Nacy Pelosi inhabits in Washington.

When the libs really want to get sereous about lifting the black man up in America they need to have Charles tell his life experience growing up black in America. He is truly a ” real ” American winner, against all odds.

He puts Al, Jessie, Cosby and even Obama to shame for what they still to this day are doing to their supposed people.

Now there I go pitching him to
Arkansas Steve

None of these four would attract my interest for more than 20 minutes PER YEAR.

Pelley seems like a good choice, but the ?executives? at CBS news will probably outsmart themselves by making a bad choice and paying WAY TOO MUCH. They did just that with Katieboo.
ModerateMan

This article is pretty repulsive. In a liberal’s world diversity equals being black. Any intelligent person would consider diversity to be a diversity of thought… or atleast include asians and hispanics:). Heck, I bet most conservatives would be shocked if they just actually hired a moderate lefty like Jake Tapper.
http://twitter.com/SailRabbits Magister

Out of the four people listed, Russ Mitchell is the only one employed by CBS. I don’t know where they are in their contracts, but one assumes that the others would require a buyout or a wait.

In my opinion, Mr. Mitchell would be a solid choice. I’ve had no reason to question his performance and no major flubs come to mind, plus because he’s already under contract. Like Pelley, he’s not a marquee name, so he’d start at a cheaper price and that would go along with the cost-cutting cast changes, “Tiffany” has already made in the mornings.
timzank

Ifill is the trifecta, black, woman, flaming lib. She’s a natural for network.
Sean68

How about the comic Earthquake?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWenR1KX-ek
Gasket

rubberneck said:
Gwen iFill or Norris are not qualified for the position. They are commentators.

Does that disqualify Megyn Kelly from her job on Faux news? Or is this barometer reserved only for the network news broadcasts. Out of those four, I think Russ and lester Holt are best. There’s also Elizabeth Vargas (ABC), Ann Curry (NBC), Laurie Dhue (formerly FOX, now @ HLN) amongst others who do great work at reporting straight news.
kvon

Poor white men, they can never catch a break.
OxyCon

I always liked Lester Holt and think he has just as much going for him as Brian Williams does. IMO, he’d make a great anchor. My wildcard is Al Roker who has a nice charisma about him, but might be too flamboyant for the boring anchor job.
But then again, I don’t watch any of the three original networks, so they could hire Al Sharpton and it wouldn’t matter to me.
murf

.. Rick Sanchez ? LOL
writer

Francis the Talking Ass?
Sean68

Is Stymie still alive? Franklin from Peanuts?
Heatshield

Note to bigots: There’s nothing wrong with being White and male at the same time.
X-3

I think they should give the job to Jesse Jackson. It couldn’t hurt their ratings. OK, well, maybe a little.