BROADCAST NEWS

Ms. Chung’s performance (and I use that word most advisedly and most charitably) of “Thanks for the Memories” was, um, unique by any standards. While watching her “singing” on top of that piano, I was cheering for her to hit a note if she ever got close to one, but, sad to say, she never did. I can offer her only one piece of advice: “Connie, don’t quit your day job, if you still have one.”
Part of Dan Rather’s currrent treatment is that CBS has a well-established history of not treating its former anchors well. Douglas Edwards was the anchor of the nightly CBS news broadcast in the 1950′s until Walter Cronkite came along, and then was relegated to delivering five-minute news reports between soap operas on weekdays before his retirement. When Mr. Cronkite retired in 1981 due to mandatory retirement policies then in place, CBS assured him that he’d have a vital role in reporting news there as they pushed him out the door and threw his hat after him. One of the few times he reappeared on the network was to cohost with Mary Tyler Moore its 50th anniversary show in 1978. So I’m not surprised about Mr. Rather’s treatment. Maybe he can find work by co-hosting a show with Maury and Connie on a network that no one watches, like CNBC.