HollywoodIdiocy.com

Sean Penn, whose schizophrenia has him convinced he’s not only an Oscar-winning actor (which is true), but an unbiased journalist and a smarter political mind than the entire Bush administration - which at best, is open to debate and in my opinion is about as ridiculous as Al Gore’s claim that he invented the Internet - has been at it again.

Speaking in Oakland, California, of all places - talk about your stacked audiences - to “boldly” proclaim ad nauseum his opposition to the Iraq War. Yeah, it’s really “brave” to tell Bush to “shove it” in front of an Oakland audience; about as brave as George W. Bush saying he’s gonna cut taxes - in front of the GOP National Convention.

Of course, like all brain-dead celebrities, Penn offered no substance on how an “immediate pull-out from Iraq” would work without causing the current democratic regime to fall, thus making the lives lost in the war effort there so far an actual waste, rather than just a waste in the minds of liberals.

With his rosy outlook, perhaps Penn should develop another persona to add to his multiple personality disorder; with his gloom and doom outlook, he’d make a perfect agent for selling funeral insurance.

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The backlash against Katie Couric probably began when her biggest scoop of her first show was “the first official photos of TomKat’s daughter, Suri.” Sensing the former Today host was turning the news broadcast into Entertainment Tonight, people began tuning out the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and tuning in more-serious news broadcasts, like ABC’s World News Tonight with Charles Gibson and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.

Heck, some have even migrated to Fox News and reruns of Friends, according to the latest numbers on the Drudge Report, which monitors such things.

Many in the media are trying to make Couric’s gender the issue behind her low ratings, including her CBS bosses. I disagree. It’s too easy for out-of-touch network execs to blame “backwards” middle Americans, who they assume “aren’t comfortable with a female anchor.”

Bull. Between Fox News and CNN, folks have enjoyed and watched female anchors for a long time now. Greta Van Sustren and Catherine Crier are successful examples, as well as - to a lesser extent - Nancy Grace. The big difference between Couric and them is that they took their newscasts seriously from day one.

While Couric has made successful efforts to lend gravitas to her news broadcasts since then, it seems not to be making an impact with the average viewer; her numbers are now lower than “Broadway Dan” Rather’s darkest days, when he was at his least credible.

How much longer will CBS tolerate the failed Couric anchorship? She’s less than a year into a five-year deal, so it all depends on how much they want her out, which right now, they don’t.

But if CBS does eventually change anchors, here’s hoping they go LESS Hollywood next time, and more Washington Press Corps. Because if they keep going in this direction, by the time Katie Couric is relegated to selling Orlando rental property, we’ll be seeing CBS promote the heck out of the CBS Evening News with Sean Penn… Or Jon Stewart. Which would, of course, be idiocy.

Then again, Penn’s been “in the field” as a journalist more than Couric has; and Stewart has more credibility.

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