Couric May Be Gone In Two Weeks, Sources Say

The buzz around the news business and political circles is that CBS News lead anchor, Katie Couric, may be out of a job in as little as two weeks.

Rumors of a major shakeup at CBS News have been floating about for weeks. Couric has not helped the CBS Evening News pull itself up out of the ratings doldrums, and in fact, the ratings have only plunged further since she assumed the anchor's chair.

The big news that has made its way around the Beltway, however, is that CBS may be getting ready to outsource its news reporting to CNN.

This would be earth-shattering news to the network newscasts, which have been a mainstay of the big three networks since their inception. However, as times have changed and viewers are presented with a variety of choices from which to get their news, the network news broadcasts have suffered terribly, losing viewers by the millions every year.

As far back as a decade ago media watchers were predicting the demise of network news broadcasts as they gradually become dinosaurs from a bygone era.

Fox dominates cable news, and they are not the only choice. CNN, of course, is the grandfather of cable news services although they have lost much of their dominance to Fox.

And then there are the endless sources of news on the Internet.

Couric, it seems, came along at the wrong time. She isn't bad as an anchor, although she is definitely liberal in her bias. But she is not as bad as many, and much much better than her predecessor, Dan Rather, who never attempted to hide his bias or aim at objectivity.

Sources close to Couric's negotiations with CBS state that the anchor may stay through the 2008 Presidential election, but that if acceptable terms cannot be reached she could be gone in as little as two weeks.

If the latter holds sway, the question is will CBS News once again turn to its white male, gray-haired veterans, such as Bob Sheiffer, until it reaches an agreement with CNN on outsourcing the news.