Of course, that had been in an era when CBS had enjoyed a better reputation as a serious news source. But, in the new, much more competitive economic environment, CBS news perhaps needed to rise to the occassion and revist its better days.
(When writing this, I wanted to check that I was spelling Katie Couric's name correctly. So I tried Google. I found I did have the spelling right. I also noted that Google presented me with a number of suggested headings regarding various, more detailed, aspects of the subject in question. Among them:
katie couric hair
katie couric legs
katie couric new haricut
As a certified geek, I couldn't be satisfied with accepting superficial popular-culture prompts from Google. I tried "katie couric polka dot dress," with the advanced search mode, and was "disapointed' to find only 2,710 matches.)
Should my friends at CBS have wanted to try a more serious approach, I had a new blockbuster news story for them. That was, you know, in honor of our thirty years of close association and affectionate mutual regard.
Here's the story: In late 2008, some scientific and journalistic enquiries from my younger years came suddenly into new focus with this significant finding: I realized that there must have been a biochemical or evolutionary "big bang."
That event had, in some ways, been analogous to the celestial "big bang." The biochemical "big bang" had been a single event; it had been the origin or template of all life, as we know it today. It was the template for the restricted set of biochemical moelcules in today's world.
The reader may find out more by returning to my home page and clicking on links to articles on this subject.
Now, my delightful business experiences with CBS had begun in Chicago, as related at the start of this article. And my new story had a strong Chicago connection: I'd graduated from two Chicago-area institutions, the University of Chicago and Northwestern.
Moreover, I 'd had recent phone conversations with biochemists at those same two institutions; I'd been able to verify that my discovery of a biochemical "big bang" made sense to Chicago-area scientists, qualified in the appropriate field.
At WBBM, the Chicago CBS TV station, I'd approached in 1973 / 74 with a press release, I phoned Mr. Mike Puccinelli.
I wanted to give him an early opportunity with this important story.
Mike had an Italian name, and I was feeling some empathy with Galileo Galilei at that time.
Like Galileo, people hardly ever call me my last name.
And there were other reasons for empathy. You see, what I was saying was logical enough. It was true. But, like Galileo, I was facing institutional oppostition. This oppostition was from a somewhat similar cause as that Galileo faced: I hadn't gone through channels; I had a habit of making sarcastic comments about those in authority.
My finding, like some of Galileo's, was also of an entirely unexpected nature; people would have to rethink things.
Unfortunately, people don't like to rethink.
The reader may be shocked that I would make this comparison with Galileo. I can understand that since I dress more fashionably than Galileo and my jokes, though sometimes possessing similar insubordination, are much less dated. And I don't have a beard.
Nevertheless, I 'll let the comparison stand, in the hope that Galileo may find greater favor in the eye's of today's youth.
The Insider used to have a segment heading--"Yes, it's true. No, it's not."
My situation could fit under that heading.
While what I was saying was indeed true, as attested by other qualified scientists, there was institutional indifference. There were, perhaps, even some groups, institutions, or individuals that might, on considering my opinion, discover a hostile response.
But public health was at risk, as was progress in life sciences conceptual understanding. So the story was entirely legitimate, from a journalistic point of view.
Earlier in this article I've related how William Paley used the series WKRP in Cincinnati as an effective weapon in his competition with the other networks. If CBS was losing money in 2008 and 2009, perhaps that was because the network had lost Mr. Paley's competitive skills.
And today, even someone like me--who's been judged a goody two-shoes by general opinion of broadcast journalists-- can compete with CBS.
My web site, after all, has excellent typography; it has color pictures; in due time, it will probably be in three dimensions, with dancing Persian slave girls, to impress the reader.
More than that, it has significant content.
After all, there's only so much meaning and interest that can be derived from a Katie Couric's hair cut. A hair cut can't replace one's losses in the stock market.
Could it be that what was once thought impossible had finally been realized? Could it be that it was now sometimes possible to go broke by underestimating the intelligence of the American public?
Imagine a reporter for any TV station or newspaper reading this in April 2009. Fear of the dark power of the Federal Reserve had made their employers give up all their supposed rights of freedom of the press. That disgusting story is told earlier in this article and in other material on this site. (See "Alan Greenspan," "Henry Paulson," etc. on my home page.) Was the media the watchdog of democracy? Not when it came to reporting on government corruption which had led to the economic collapse of 2008 / 2009. Neverthelesss, despite having sold their souls to the devil, newspapers were closing, TV stations were losing ad revenue and laying off reporters.
It was almost enough to make a person give up his or her faith in the powers of darkness. One might even begin to doubt the ultimate triumph of the forces of evil.
I close, then, with the situation as it was in April 2009. At CBS, declines in advertising rates had probably not nearly bottomed out. Cuts were, no doubt, being made at the network and, probably also, at wholly-owned WBBM.
I'd two significant news stories to offer them for free, along with the foregoing recollection of past events. The two stories have been described above: (1) Satellite solar power may be able to solve the global warming problem; (2) There was a biochemical big bang which was the beginning of life on Earth.
The first story is my commentary on events to which I've been an outside observer. The second represents my own original work.
If my friends at Viacom / CBS wanted to be a little more serious, I was thinking, they could do something to help the country deal with the recession. The same recession was, no doubt, causing them serious problems at CBS.
A recession wasn't just about money. It's about finding new directions and becoming interested in new ideas. If my friends at CBS weren't interested in what I had to tell them, it wouldn't have been the first time.
Indeed, my history of often being rejected by the mass media has at times even extended to a refusal on their part to run an ad for which I was willing to pay. My adventures with the Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Post are related earlier in this article. But in early 2009, newspapers, such as the Enquirer, were having a very hard time and it looked as if this humble web site was going to outlast some of those papers. My guess about the TV stations that were losing money was that many of them would be forced to switch to lower-cost programming. That might mean that news operations would be reduced in size.
But, whatever happened, I was to have the satisfaction of knowing that I'd done what I could as a concerned member of the public to help solve two significant current problem.
That would be true even if everyone at Viacom / CBS were to translate "concerned member of the public," above, into "goody two-shoes," "dork," or "nerd."
(We have the English language in common, but any given group may have its own lingo.)
Last modified: April 2009
My life as a show business outcast
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