Mike Wallace died this past weekend. Andy Rooney (of the unruly eyebrows) died last November.
The old CBS brigade is beginning to fade away.
A few of the ancients are still alive. Charles Osgood (age 79) still anchors “CBS Sunday Morning.” Morley Safer (age 80) is still around, I think. Bob Schieffer (age 75) still hosts “Face the Nation,” also on Sunday mornings; he’s wonderful, but he seems to be getting a big weaker over the past few years. The wonderful Bill Geist (a mere baby at age 66) is still going strong.
But still!
CBS – journalistically, anyway – is an octogenarian’s network. Look at the list above! They’re old! There are a few younger correspondents – the lamentable Steve Hartman, for example, with his mournful insincere face – but they’re the exception. (And Steve Hartman, let’s face it, is just a feeble Charles Kuralt wannabe.)
Listen, don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind old. I’m getting there myself. I’m fifty-four going on fifty-five, with sciatica and kidney stones. I understand the demographic, and the concerns.
But even I become impatient with CBS’s news division when they explain the “Internet” to me as if it’s a strange new concept, or “Whole Foods,” or “Cyndi Lauper.”
I’ve said before that CBS is the geezer network.
I thought I was exaggerating.
I was wrong.
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