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| CBS News executives were red- faced |
| 2008-09-26 |
| CBS News executives were red- faced yesterday trying to explain how David Letterman used unaired news footage of Sen. John McCain with Katie Couric to embarrass the Republican presidential candidate. McCain canceled his appearance on Letterman's show late Wednesday, several hours before he was due to appear - claiming he had to return to Washington to deal with the financial crisis. But when Letterman discovered the Senator sitting down with Couric at the same time he was supposed to be taping "Late Night," he unloaded on McCain. "I'm more than a little disappointed by this behavior," Letterman told viewers. "This doesn't smell right." "This is not the way a tested hero behaves. Somebody's putting something in his Metamucil," he said. Later in the show, Letterman showed an internal, live video of McCain being tended to by a make-up artist before the Couric interview. Both Couric and Letterman are on CBS. Letterman said on the air that McCain had called him personally to apologize and said he was racing to the airport. "He doesn't seem to be racing to the airport, does he?" Letterman told viewers. "I feel like we've caught him getting a manicure," Letterman quipped, as a make-up woman dabbed at McCain's face. Asked if CBS officials had a problem with Letterman using the internal news feed, a spokeswoman for "The Evening News" refused to address the issue. But several CBS News executives - who asked not to be identified - said that the stunt did not go down well within the news division. "If we had done something like that to him, someone around here would end up getting fired," one said. News officials found out Letterman was using the internal feed shortly after it showed up on an internal CBS feed carrying the "Late Show" taping. "They were pretty aggravated," a CBS News source told The Post. "But they were not about to start a fight with Letterman," the source said. "We're in the middle of a heavy, heavy news cycle and Letterman is Letterman. "He does whatever he wants and always has." McCain spokeswoman Nicole Wallace said that the campaign canceled on Letterman because it "felt this wasn't a night for comedy." |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |
| #11 Agreed, P2K. If it weren't for HGTV, Food Network, Discovery Health, etc., I wouldn't bother with cable. Without those networks, doubt I'd bother with TV much at all. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-09-26 18:41 |
| #10 You haven't missed a damned thing. Band of Brothers, but you could get that on DVD now anyway. The non-traditional distributors are more entertaining without insulting your intelligence or raising your blood pressure. TLC/Discovery, et al. Dirty Jobs, Deadliest Catch, etc. The new series on the Alaskan Iditarod race looks interesting. I'm sure Todd and Sarah will probably watch. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-09-26 18:10 |
| #9 ...and your anxiety level and blood pressure are probably much healthier than mine. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-09-26 17:56 |
| #8 "I haven't had a TV or cable feed in over 15 years." You haven't missed a damned thing. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-09-26 17:54 |
| #7 I haven't had a TV or cable feed in over 15 years. Who's Letterman? That lame unfunny a**hole from NBC latenight way back when? |
| Posted by: tep 2008-09-26 17:09 |
| #6 Didn't he get Olbermann on instead? |
| Posted by: DK70 the Scantily Clad7177 2008-09-26 12:53 |
| #5 Lighten up, |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-09-26 11:25 |
| #4 The only person on TV that is less funny than Letterman is John Stewart. He's been doing the Daily Show so long he's starting to believe that he really is a news anchor or something. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-09-26 11:17 |
| #3 I didn't realize I had the capacity for a even more diminished regard of Letterman |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-09-26 10:03 |
| #2 Letterman stopped being funny long before he even made the move to CBS. There's a reason Leno won "his" Late Night slot. I think the last time I laughed at one of Letterman's gags was about 20 years ago. An over-the-hill has-been if there ever was one. |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2008-09-26 09:58 |
| #1 Who cares? No one takes CBS seriously anyway. It's their problem that the public expects this sort of adolescent behavior from them. I'd say the behavior is "unprofessional" but that would imply that someone, anyone, at NBC was attempting to uphold professional standards - haha. Now that's funny. |
| Posted by: Betty Grating2215 2008-09-26 09:48 |