It’s been almost 2 months since Scott Pelley took the anchor chair and he’s away on his first assignment for 60 Minutes. 2 Days into his absence and I’m back on board. Bob Schieffer is awesome.

Day 2 with Bob Schieffer... A paraphrase of his opening line: Rupert Murdoch was in front of the British Parliament today to testify - took a flurry of questions... then he got hit in the face with a cream pie... LMAO.

If CBS wasn’t sure they made a mistake before yesterday, they should be sure now. Even CBS’s Business Correspondent Anthony Mason had to LOL during his introduction from the ease at which Schieffer delivered that line. It was refreshing... it was honest. Fact is, Bob don’t give a damn - He’s not trying to prove anything to anyone. He’s the first anchor CBS has had in that chair since Walter Cronkite who convinces us that he’s genuine. Scott Pelley is killing me...

This is reminding me of NBC’s big gaffe when they gave The Tonight Show to Conan O’Brien and put Jay Leno at 10. Stupid. I understand they were attempting to move the brand forward, but, they would have been better of leaving Jay on The Tonight Show and trying Conan at 10. No disruption of the brand. Now NBC Entertainment just looks like idiots.

This is where we are with CBS. I see it coming - by the end of the summer, there’s going to be another change. I said in my very first blog post that they should have just given the chair to Harry Smith. With good reason, Harry has now left to go to NBC. What were they expecting? You would think they would have learned from the mistakes they made passing over John Roberts years ago. Looks like news executives haven’t gotten any more in-tune with society...

But, my guess is that Bob Schieffer is not interested in a full time job like the evening news 5 days a week. My bet is that he’s perfectly happy living here in WDC, taping Face The Nation every Sunday and thinking on retirement. I want it on record that I want his job. Face The Nation with Billy Abshaw has a nice ring to it... Stay tuned...

But, in just 2 days, Bob Schieffer has given some life back to the broadcast. Even more-so than Katie Couric. Not hard to do following Dan Rather, but... The word is that during his 17 months anchoring the broadcast before Katie took the chair, ratings were up significantly enough to get CBS in 2nd place. Katie Couric only got to 2nd place once or twice, but, nothing prolonged. What does that tell you CBS?

So, here is my suggestion for how CBS should handle this... I’ll use another NBC situation - this one from the early 90’s. The Today Show. Jane Pauley leaves Today. Her replacement is Deborah Norville. Audiences are not warming up to Deborah Norville. She goes out on maternity leave, in comes pregnant Katie Couric as her fill-in. Perfect plan; Katie goes out on maternity leave, Deborah comes back, all is well. However, audiences LOVE Katie Couric. 16 years later, Katie Couric leaves as the highest paid morning show anchor ever with the highest ratings ever.

When you’re learning the art of writing for television news, there is always someone in the newsroom who is happy to tell you this: Keep it simple stupid (KISS).

Note to CBS: Leave all the bad staffing decisions to NBC. KISS...

I just don't know where to begin with this one. I mean, being a journalist is supposed to equal honesty, integrity, a responsibility to the consumer... What the F? I guess to be fair, News Corp has not been implicated in any of the activities of News of the World, but, if you're a journalist, you know how FOX NEWS operates and the answer to that querie is - start asking a lot of questions.

If you're not a journalist, some background: News International is the european media conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch. News Corporation is the American media conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch. Not 100% about how they are connected/if they are connected/how they fit - doesn't matter, they are both owned by RUPERT MURDOCH. Never met him, but, would rather meet a Bear. At least I'd know what was coming.

I'll give Rupert a little credit, however. He bought The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post, I think in an attempt to give Fox some credibility, but, I think it's just sullied the reputations of the former. NYP is just not what it used to be and having interviewed at WSJ/Dow Jones some years back, it is really not what it used to be. But, I don't know that they've turned to a life of crime. Speaking of crime, let's get back to Fox News...

To be clear, I am 100% non-partisan. Best candidate wins for me. But, there is an unconfirmed rumor of a liberal media bias. I disagree with that with exception of Fox News. I find that the problem is not an inherent liberal bias in the media as much as there is a political slant to the media which manifests itself in partisan individuals. I've witnessed this first hand in the field with other reporters and see it everyday on the news. My rule of thumb - if you can tell which side the interviewer is on, there is bias. Journalism is supposed to be unbiased.

Fox has taken this to a new level. They emphatically take the right, sometimes just for the sake of taking the right. Like News of the World, Fox attracts the people who will do ANYTHING for a story. But, politics aside, when Fox began growing here in the USA, many of the people who went to work for them were the people who lacked credibility in my newsrooms. Therefore, politics aside again, the level of quality they brought to this new network was low. It's still not there and those of us who regard journalism with only the highest standards consider Fox, “The red-headed stepchild.”

Criminal activity at a Rupert Murdoch publication? Should anyone who knows anything about the media be surprised? I don’t think anyone is surprised. I’ll be surprised if there is no criminal activity found at Fox or WSJ or NYP.

I’m curious to hear what people on the outside of the media think about this…

So, I'm a news snob. And, having spent the better part of a decade hunting down news, I feel justified as such. My favorite - The CBS Evening News... sorta.

I grew up watching CBS local and national news. They always seemed to have the best overall newscasts, even before I knew what that was supposed to look like. Even through the Dan Rather years - not a fan - CBS always had the best correspondents, which made the show. But, I can never get all things to line up... let me explain.

Dan Rather was a horrible anchor, but, they had good correspondents and the producers put the shows together well. Then Katie Couric came along - liked her as the anchor - but they lost the good correspondents. Now Scott Pelley is the anchor - not so much - the correspondents are just okay and the producers aren't stacking the shows out of the ballpark. Easy answer is to just change the channel, right? Let me further explain...

The night-time leader in newscasts is Brian Williams. Brian Williams is a nice man. I've met him. Nice man. But, I sense that their producers suck, they stack the shows like pringles and between Brian attempting to be "folksy" and what appears to be mediocre writers, the words just don't flow so well. Just my opinion.

Then there's Diane Sawyer. I can't watch her because she always looks like she's in pain as she delivers the news. HOWEVER, ABC World News has outrageous good correspondents and the producers and writer are A+ putting the shows together. Why can't they just get an anchor that doesn't induce squinting?

So, the verdict is: Scott Pelley is awesome as a 60 Minutes correspondent, but, CBS should leave it at that. He admits that he's not an anchor, so... The 60 Minutes magic isn't going to work if the magician doesn't have any tricks...


The new show should be called: The CBS Evening News with Harry Smith. Who's with me?