Its all over the evening news......

Folks who are ancient enough still to be drooling over Paul Simon's epic album Graceland will remember one of its unfathomable but deliciously-sounding lines;

"Its all over the evening news - all about the fire in your life on the evening news." I've never had a clue what he was on about. But I know that when I came to America the Evening News really counted for something.

It was Jennings v Rather v Brokaw.

These days, apparently, up against Twitter and Facebook and My Space and Me-Me-Me-Me-Space, its old hat.

But last night, one of the old stodgers' programs did something great. And it was the one which had the audacity to put someone who wears a skirt in front of the camera in place of Dan Rather.

Yes, Katie Couric, of whom all we normally hear is diving ratings, hemlines, and allegedly bitchy asides, turned in a newscast that Edward R. would have been proud of. Departing from the nightly rundown protocol of her corporate-driven colleagues and their obligatory features on diet pills, dog food, toothpaste and flu scares, the CBS Evening News devoted its entire half hour to the biggest story of our time - Afghanistan.

Scariest of all, anyone watching would have learned new things - a groundbreaking concept for most network American television. There were maps, explanations, context, and - most alarming - real-time war footage (not network library rehash) from experienced correspondents.

One of them was Lara Logan, another female trespasser through the male news firewall, previously famous only in the mainstream media for an alleged tryst with a US Government contractor in Iraq. Her story for "60 Minutes" filed last month gave a terrifying real-time eye-witness account of a Taliban attack on a US Army stronghold. It was a courageous, dramatic and first-hand example of genuine war reporting carried out at great personal risk. Last night's piece contained an exclusive interview with a senior US Army official on the ground (in other words, not a pundit) pulling no punches about the task facing them. Again, she was uniquely, enterprisingly and daringly placed to give the audience priceless and unvarnished insight into the challenge.

Move over Hollywood.

Some people still care about real, bloody-minded first-hand journalism. Katie Couric and CBS stood alone last night in front of the American TV-watching public in placing critical world events over short-term economics. Now, if they could only do something about Dave Letterman.......

Tags: abc, afghanistan, bbc, cbs, couric, dave, katie, lara, letterman, logan

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Comment by Stephanie on October 26, 2009 at 3:21pm: Mark - Absolutely! Thanks for sharing these insights - and the links, which were interesting to follow.

I agree with you on all counts, as a female journalist myself and as an Evening News watcher. What can I say...in my late 30s, I'm a throwback compared to friends and fellow grad students. But I remember the olden-golden days, when Grandpa Kaye would, without exception, sit down every night after his bowl of ice cream for dessert to watch the Evening News.

There's something still comforting for me in the ritual, if not the quality, of network news. Hearing from the gatekeepers who head up the Big Three, their features "on diet pills, dog food, toothpaste and flu scares" are reliable, cloyingly familiar, but uninformative and educationally unhelpful.

Couric is the one I watch, both in honor of her Grrrl Power and for the unique features she has helped shepherd onto the broadcast. It's good to know one outlet got it right on a recent night, and that, on occasion, there's still something on the news that inspires.