Tony Tony Tony

I don't even know what to say about this. Tony Dokoupil, who has spent the past few years chortling and guffawing with Gayle King and Nate Burleson, will begin anchoring the CBS Evening News tonight, because that once-highly-regarded network was recently taken over by forces hostile to experience and background, in favor of pleasing wealthy people who own lots and lots of tv stations.  

 

So, out go John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, two broadcasters who had some idea of history, and in comes Mr Dokoupil, who, believe it or not, apparently willingly participated in a promotional stunt, taped for a promo, in which he stood around with his name lettered on a piece of paper and asked passersby how to pronounce it. That's a great way to seem like "one of the people," right? It was about as embarrassing as when channel 13 here hired Oprah Winfrey to come in as an anchor, a job for which she was, at the time, wildly unqualified. But they devised a promotional campaign on the theme of "What is an 'Oprah'?" that was supremely embarrassing.

Oprah, of course, found her niche and I hope Tony does as well, but to be a news anchor, one should have a thorough knowledge of the terrain. We see it all the time, folks brought in from out of town with no idea how to pronounce "Hampden" (HAM-den) or "Riviera Beach" (RuhVERA Beach). One needs to know these things if one is to be taken seriously as a communicator, and we will see soon if Dokoupil can pick his way through history as he relates to contemporary events, because there is really nothing new under the sun. 

But I bring all this up because there is a story online saying that "Incoming CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil says legacy media has lost the plot by listening too much to 'elites.'"

He goes on to say, “On too many stories, the press has missed the story,” because  news outlets have “put too much weight in the analysis of academics, or elites, and not enough on you.”

What a disappointment. What he's saying here is that we should not take seriously the words of men and women who have studied history, art and culture. No, no! Let's pay more attention to the benighted slobs who say, "Deez guys don't know nothing."

Let's hear the history of the civil rights movement in America through the eyes of a 19-year-old Caucasian who couldn't tell Ralph Abernathy from Ralph Kramden.

Let's hear about the Constitution from someone who begins most sentences with, "I'll tell ya what..."

And by all means, let us hear from the people out there who believe that not only is John F. Kennedy, Jr, still alive, so is his father! 

They're out there, they vote, and CBS wants them as viewers. The heck with them elites.