Ladies of the Morning

...Still, I couldn't get the CBS Morning News habit...

...Today's producers have been invincible in the early morning TV slot for all these years because they put on material for the one-eared and one-eyed...

...Sally Quinn read the teleprompter like any other Washington Post journalist doing a TV show for the first time...

...This phenomenon may have something to do with the balance of nature, though I thought the illness gave her a spark of mortality that has since disappeared, leaving us with the real woman-a rather cold, humorless broadcaster on another news show, telling people who want to have their minds massaged to wake up and face grim reality...

...Hart also happened to be one of the best newsmen working the tube...

...Barbara Walters isn't a good reporter...

...The video should not, however, show the flag being run up the mast...

...You don't hear real anger on TV often...

...Quinn...

...Quinn doesn't seem to have much to say, and what she does say reveals a provincial mind...

...The show was always stimulating and provocative...

...Maybe 10 per cent like the way she lives, and they're the sort who don't get up until noon...

...Gene Shalit isn't a good reporter...

...Without the teleprompter she sounded even worse...

...Others object on moral grounds...

...This is an inspirational musical theme that for some reason has never been used on an early-morning talk show, though all ex-servicemen would love it...

...I hope you don't think it rude," Barbara will tell an author who is half asleep at that hour, "but they say about your book that you are lying, that you haven't done your research, and that in the little research you did do you got your facts all wrong...

...And her informal conversation is filled with half-finished sentences, another cocktail party speech pattern that doesn't work effectively on TV...

...This effort is very Nixonian since the PR men are stating one thing and meaning another...

...The closest television has come to the sort of programming that makes you happy to dive back into bed and pull the covers over yow eyes-the real American dream-Is the Today show on NBC...

...As her health grew stronger, her television appearances grew weaker...

...The Today show was actually designed to not be seen or heard in 15 or 30 minute loops...

...She undoubtedly appeals to true liberals...

...It's the Walters style to use the innocent approach on authors who are out of favor with the establishment, i.e., somebody like Mark Lane...

...But I suspect this novelty would wear thin, too...

...But not everybody is a veteran...

...I remember one morning when he was grilling H. R. Halde-man about some malfeasance in the President's office...

...And, judging by the miserable ratings, I wasn't the only one...

...The CBS brass must have thought that Sally's lifestyle might appeal to early-morning audiences more than Hart's or Benton's...

...Unfortunately, a lot of TV viewers resent her kind of existence...

...She came across on the air as a very dull person...

...Morning television personalities always talk about good reporting to keep people from catching on to what a racket they have...

...Informal conversations about the news is the one innovation on the latest edition of the CBS Morning News...

...If viewers haven't seen much good reporting from Ms...

...During her first week on the air, Sally Quinn had the flu...

...the fault is not hers...

...His interviews with major figures were longer than is customary (10 minutes), and his questions were tough...

...His range of small talk is wide...

...One senses, though, that Rudd has an obligation to conduct informal conversations, thus making them less informal...

...Having failed with this format, the geniuses at CBS chose to challenge Today this summer with a new show-the CBS Morning News with Hughes Rudd and Sally Quinn...

...Quinn speaks with what has been called a "debutante slouch," which may be charming at a cocktail party after a few martinis, but is grating before or after a cup of instant coffee...

...She is kinder with establishment figures, so there may be room for Sally to develop a style of her own...

...Hughes Rudd isn't a good reporter...

...Haldeman replied, "Can't you wear a jacket...

...McGee can speak extemporaneously for two hours and every line will parse...

...I even wrote slogans in my appointment calendar ("wake up and watch hart...

...Personally, I didn't care what her sex life was...

...And I'll be able to go back to dreaming about the bugle call in the morning...

...What do you think of those charges...

...Even Joe Garagiola, during his incredible rise from a mediocre baseball catcher to a major communicator on the Today show, wasn't a good reporter...

...you have nothing to lose but your sleep...

...Quinn was hired because she was a sexpot, only CBS didn't want anybody to say she was a sexpot...

...The bugler should be followed by an old master sergeant with a very loud voice chewing viewers out for being a bunch of lazy fat-assed civilians...

...Then everyone would have to jump up and stand at attention...

...This is probably an excellent idea, and certain kinds of people are quite good at it-hughes Rudd, for example...

...I knew my mind would be better off with an hour of Hart, and that a man in his shirtsleeves was significant to the proletariat...

...In a year or so, when Sally Quinn's option comes up for renewal, she will probably quit and take a job with Clay Felker's magazine, New York...

...The anchorpeople's real function is to serve as traffic cops-to make sure that the commercials don't bump into the teleprompter copy...

...m Everybody who knows and loves Sally Quinn keeps telling me that she is a real pro as an interviewer...

...Frank McGee sitting in the studio isn't a good reporter (although he is terrific at finishing sentences...

...Hart reported the day's events in his shirtsleeves...

...Sally Quinn is a good reporter as well, everybody who knows her also says-especially the CBS public-relations department now trying frantically to disavow some of that sexpot publicity...

...their rivals traditionally made the mistake of supplying programs that required full attention...

...A New York magazine article about her private life that appeared shortly before her debut, I thought, would make it impossible for anybody to watch her without thinking about her off-camera activities...

...Yet in the ability to ask bitchy questions or make cutting remarks early in the morning, any challenger has a long way to go to top Barbara Walters...

...The most recent failure along these lines was The CBS Morning News with John Hart and Nelson Benton, one of the finest news shows I have ever seen...

...She'd be reporting on crime, war and famine in the morning, and you'd be wondering who she was going to bed with in the evening or -one gathered from the piece-In the afternoon, or just prior to show time...

...In these kinds of news shows, only the camera is a good reporter...

...and when Rudd and his co-anchorperson are talking to each other, you always feel that a guest is missing...

...Listening to it in its entirety is an unnatural and depressing experience, whose single benefit is that it makes Barbara Walters' Not For Women Only, which follows on most NBC stations, sound like Herman Kahn's Hudson Institute...

...Since 1951, Today has been the favorite program of the half-awake...

...No more private rooms or telephones, he would explain, we had our breakfast in bed before, but we won't have it there anymore...

...In his gravelly voice, he is liable to let loose a witty comment, some homespun philosophy or a bit of honest indignation at a turn of events in the news...

...Many are jealous ?I'm married," they think, "and she's leading the good life...

...Basically, it is the same program the network has been putting on for 15 years, only now they have a folksy old CBS correspondent (Rudd) and a girl who has never been on the air before but has a reputation for measuring penises...

...The worst thing about the CBS experiment is that it makes you think more of Barbara Walters, who I have always detested...

...sometimes he was in an old sweater or a vest...

...This was a real breakthrough in the presentation of news...

...For almost a quarter of a century it has been serving as a snooze alarm, something to turn on in the morning and promptly fall asleep to for a few extra priceless minutes...

...He is one of the fastest thinkers on his seat in the East...

...It is also very popular with viewers who are out brushing their teeth while the set plays in the bedroom...

...Perhaps she could save the CBS Morning News by going topless...

...It opened beautifully with Vivaldi or Mozart, according to the season, against a background of sunrises filmed by CBS' far-flung camera crews...

...Despite the threats-a month of KP, and none of that soft stuff like being dining-room orderly-ex-servicemen would know in their hearts that they did not have to get up...