Ann Althouse covered Katie’s CBS anchor debut yesterday. Interesting take, given that Ann is female and she doesn’t seem to like how the CBS Evening News has been transformed into something that looks like it was spawned from Lifetime, We, or Oxygen.

It’s so annoying to feel forced into it! She’s standing up and wearing a weird white jacket buttoned conspicuously at the waist as if to argue with those who said she’d been photoshopped into semi-svelteness. Now, she’s sitting down, but in kind of a half standing position in front of a low desk, to give us more of a view of her torso. She’s got a special white microphone to blend in with that white lapel. The first few stories are military, as if they need to drive it home that a woman can cover the manly topics.

Yes, “they” can cover those manly topics, haha. But my favorite part has to be:

Now, Katie tells us coyly that she just can’t figure out what her sign-off line should be. She shows clips of various real and fictional newsguys signing off and then tries to enlist us in the fun of suggesting sign-off lines. “Log on to our website,” she says. Log on. When you go to a website, are you “logging on”? See, I’m ready to be irked by anything! Well, let’s go over there — log on over there — and see whether people are suggesting insulting sign-offs, which is what I would expect, which is one reason it’s such a bad idea.

I love the “logging on” bit, It’s 2006, I think it’s time these “experts” reporting the “news” at least get the terminology right. Ugh, in any case I’m glad I don’t get my news from these clowns. Nice work Ann.

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