CBS Plan to Rescue Her Perkiness

Anyone with a functioning brain could have told you Katie Couric would bomb as host of the CBS Evening News. It's bad enough the program has drifted so far left over the years that viewers abandoned the show in droves, especially with Democrat activist Dan Rather at the helm.

Then they bring in this empty head, pay her ungodly sums of money, and the ratings plummet further.

Now the plan is to bring in failed MSNBC honcho and friend of Bill Clinton, Rick Kaplan, to try and salvage the sinking ship. Let me guess: puff pieces on The Pantsuit to follow. Good luck with that, folks.

Rick Kaplan, a giant in TV journalism (he's 6-foot-7), is being brought in by CBS News President Sean McManus to rescue Katie Couric's languishing ratings from third place.

In his long career, Kaplan, 59 - a close friend of Bill Clinton - ran MSNBC until his ouster last summer. He has also run CNN and had a big role at ABC News. He will replace Rome Hartman as executive producer of "The CBS Evening News," insiders told Page Six.

"There was agreement that changes had to be made. Rome and Sean remain close colleagues, and Rome has a bright future with CBS News, but this was definitely a Sean McManus decision," one source said. "This was a competitive move, an aggressive move by Sean."

During the crucial February sweeps, CBS drew a nightly average of 7.6 million viewers to its evening newscast, trailing ABC's Charlie Gibson with 9.69 million, and NBC's Brian Williams with 9.65 million. Williams, who had been No. 1, was so upset to lose his lead that NBC removed his executive producer, John Reiss, last week.

Couric's rating are actually lower now by 120,000 viewers than her predecessor Bob Schieffer's were a year ago.

"Katie Couric makes $15 million a year, and she's a proven star. You know they weren't going to fire her," an insider said.

They should fire the people who hired her for starters.

UPDATE: More from Investor's Business Daily, via Michelle Malkin.

Media Bias: After "60 Minutes" used fake documents to accuse President Bush of avoiding war service, how could CBS News possibly stoop lower? By hiring a longtime Clinton crony to rescue its evening news show.