Network news now officially dead, fittingly CBS leads the way

CBS evening news tonight began with 11 minutes on Michael Jackson. The network of Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid, and Walter Cronkite chose this extensive lead above the Obama visit to and negotiations with Russia, the huge civil unrest in western China, and the upheaval in Central America with the ousting of Honduras's elected leader by the military. We have known that Katie Couric of CBS, Brian Williams of NBC, and Charles Gibson of ABC are each in their own way seriously limited in their knowledge and insight, news readers who don't seem to even know how impaired they are. CBS tonight, however, lived up to its trendsetter role of old and extended Entertainment Tonight by a half hour, and soon no doubt Ryan Seacrest will be the anchor.