More Bad News For Katie Couric: No Debate

What a bad couple of weeks for Katie Couric and the 'CBS Evening News'. The latest disappointment is that the only presidential debate that CBS was close to broadcasting has now been scrubbed. Barack Obama won't commit to the Sunday debate in North Carolina. Here's coverage from the New York Times, the Associated Press and NBC 17 in Raleigh.

TVNewser also has a report.
"The North Carolina Democratic party announced they are canceling plans for Sunday's debate because they could not get a commitment from Sen. Barack Obama. The face-off was to be moderated by Katie Couric and Bob Schieffer with a plum spot after 60 Minutes.
"I'm disappointed, we all are," CBS News Senior VP of news coverage Paul Friedman tells TVNewser. CBS has been negotiating for the debate since March 4. "It's been very frustrating, between the choice of venue and the time," Friedman said.

This news came today as 'Evening' planned a 14 minute first segment tonight about the Pennsylvania primary. Couric introduced segments from six reporters scattered around PA plus her own anchor track. It was actually a pretty good sequence of stories. As I've mentioned, the content on her newscast is pretty good (at least when I get a chance to sample it).

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