Harry Shearer tells the Seattle Times that the state of journalism is getting worse then he ever thought possible, and this means you, Rita Cosby:
SHEARER: I'm a news junkie and I watch or listen to the news, and every single one of them [Rather, Jennings, and Brokaw] kind of drove me crazy in a different way, so I got it out of my system by making fun of them. And I think their sort of united departure in a strange way put an end to a period where they really did set the agenda for what people thought was happening in the world.
SEATTLE TIMES: Seems like Anderson Cooper and Nancy Grace are signs the species is fading out.
SHEARER: Yes, and is not being replaced for the better. I speak as someone who thought it couldn't get worse, and I'm finding to my dismay it can.
SEATTLE TIMES: Are you talking specifically about Rita Cosby?
SHEARER: Well, Rita and Anderson, frankly. I think the decline is from a group of people whose pose was, "We know more about the world than you do because we can always put on our safari jacket, jump on a jet, 10 hours later get off at a trouble spot, ask four members of the crew, 'What's the mood here?' and then do a live standup about it" — to a world in which a guy does the same thing but now the pose is not that he knows more than you but that he feels more than you. It's the Oprahfication of the news.
