Anonymous CBS News employees complained to the Times about how Katie Couric was getting too much attention and the rest of the company was going ignored. The paper went ahead and looked at the rest of CBS and, what do you know, it turns out Evening News host Couric "may be the least of" CBS's worries. Its prime time ratings are down 20 percent, viewers are the oldest among major networks, the news and sports websites are behind rivals, the Early Show just lost its executive producer and the news division is laying off people and cutting back budgets. Meanwhile, CBS chief Les Moonves (pictured) saw his salary rise to $37 million last year, more than twice what Couric is believed to make. Anyone else want to complain to the Times about how they are not getting enough attention? [Times]

Now that Katie Couric is leaving the unwatched CBS Evening News before her contract expires, CBS CEO Les Moonves has little reason to keep pumping money into its putrefying corpse. Moonves "isn't a news guy, he's a showbiz guy," notes Huffington Post power-blogger Rachel Sklar. And Couric is hardly the first person to fail at anchoring the crappy program.

The Wall Street Journal broke a terribly large piece of media news this week—CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric is leaving the network after the elections, before her contract is up. That they had this story and not, say, the Times—who generally handle the TV media beat pretty well and on their own, thank you—is a nice coup for Murdoch's newest acquisition. It took a little while for the Times to catch up, but they came out last night with their own story on the meeting that ended Couric's career. (Amusingly, they credit "press reports in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere on Thursday" for breaking the Journal's exclusive scoop. Petty!) While some speculate as to what Katie will do next, or when she'll leave, Henry Blodget wonders who killed her. We're inclined to believe she killed herself.

All the news about Katie Couric maybe leaving her anchor job at the CBS Evening News grew out of "idle talk and musings" about her departure, one CBS source told the Times. Where did this supposed "idle talk" take place? In CBS Chairman Les Moonves' office, with Moonves, Couric, her agent and the president of CBS News all present. Funny, if I had a $15 million-per-year job I wanted to keep, I don't think I'd openly talk about leaving three years early in front of my boss and my boss' boss. Regardless, it now looks like Couric will, in fact, exit her contract before its 2011 expiration.

Katie Couric is in talks to leave the CBS Evening News, the Washington Post reported, lending credence to an earlier report in the Wall Street Journal that the anchor is likely to leave before her contract expires in 2011. Couric would be offered "either a syndicated talk show or a full-time role on 60 Minutes" if she is eased out as anchor, the Post's anonymous sources said. Howard Kurtz, who wrote the Post's Couric story, is playing a bit of catchup: he published an interview with Couric Monday that missed the exit talks, allowing the Journal to scoop him two days later. [Washington Post]

Katie Couric is reportedly close to being pushed off the anchor chair at the CBS Evening News after less than two years. Resented by coworkers and aging viewers, regretted by the executives paying her exorbitant salary and ignored by the younger people she was hired to attract, Couric must sometimes miss the days when she was a perky, fearless anchor key to making Today the most profitable program in television history. Back then, the New Yorker called the anchor America's "imaginary friend" while others admired her interviews as surprisingly tough (she once asked Pat Buchanan, "Are you trying to drive the President crazy, or are you just on a big ego trip?") How did America come to hate "America's Sweetheart?"

After barely 18 months on the job, Katie Couric is reported to be on the verge of leaving CBS. The Evening News anchor is costing her network $15 million per year, and she is likely to exit CBS well before her contract expires in 2011, possibly early next year, the Wall Street Journal is reporting. A parting of ways will mark the embarrassing end to CBS' big bet that viewers wanted to move beyond staid news anchors to sunnier fare, like Couric's fireside interviews and lighthearted banter.

"My first poem was published in The St. James Grammar School gazette. It was a poem about snow. I've never told anyone that I plagiarized that poem. It was really written by Penny Eastman. After 45 years of keeping that secret, I am relieved to finally get it off my chest." [Daily News]

Poor Katie Couric, she hasn't hosted a debate yet. And there have been so many! Katie really wants to, even if mean, mean Hillary says Passover conflicts with her faux-Jewish schedule. If April 19 doesn't work for you, Hil, any other date will work for Katie. She's free! Look, she's begging you, and Barack too, via the Times. Come on guys, it's CBS's turn! Because it's not like building up hype about Katie Couric's ability to succeed in a serious news role has ever screwed CBS before.

A source wrote in to say the the CBS Evening News is in talks with former Good Morning America producer Ben Sherwood, once said to be in the running to replace abrasive Shelley Ross at CBS' Early Show. Evening News producer Rick Kaplan has been filling in as Early Show producer and would remain, at least under the deal being pushed by Alan Berger, who you'll recall is Sherwood's agent from Creative Artists Agency. Sherwood left Good Morning America in late 2006. (Photo via BenSherwood.com)

Hillary Clinton says she cares about women's issues, but when it comes to supporting actual women, she's just as useless as a Victoria's Secret push=up bra. She doesn't want to do a North Carolina debate, allegedly because of Passover, but really because she doesn't want to detract attention from the Pennsylvania primaries. But what about li'l Katie Couric, who is set to host the debate? CBS is aggressively pursuing another debate so Couric could prove her gravitas with real life presidential candidates. Too bad no one likes when women do anything first, or otherwise. [NYP]

The subprime mortgage situation, the looming social security crisis and the History Channel: old men are ruining this country for us young women. If we were in charge, every day would be talk about periods and make-up day. And here's another thing old men are destroying: The broadcasting career of Katie Couric. Les Moonves, CBS chieftain, blames his own demographic for Couric's dismal run as news anchor. Men don't like getting information from a lady! Well, maybe if that Miss Couric tramp talked less about periods and make-up and more about how WWII was really won, she would do better in the ratings. [pagesix.com]

After 20 or so primary debates, you might have thought that li'l Katie Couric, anchor of the CBS Evening News, would get a chance to moderate one, but you'd be wrong. Practically every other telegenic person in broadcasting has but Katie. There are a bunch of justifications, like CBS News is cheap, CBS News writers' labor dispute, and scheduling conflicts. But these are just excuses. The real reason is that if Katie Couric ever hosted a DNC debate, there would be two vags on stage too many. (Campbell Brown doesn't count as a girl, since she's a real DC journalist, as evidenced by her requisite interest-conflicty marriage to a political operative.) [NYO]

Yet more video has surfaced from Harry Shearer's magic satellite dish, the one that catches only feeds of television people engaging in embarrassing behavior just before they go on air. This installment begins and ends with brownshirt-friendly controversialist and faghag comedienne Ann Coulter politely requesting that someone cut up a line of Nicorette for her to snort, and in between we visit angry right-wing pundit Bill O'Reilly and scarf-obsessed network anchor Katie Couric. And more! Mildly unsettling clip embedded after the jump.

So how is Portfolio magazine doing with its newly topical covers? The concept illustration, a golden gas nozzle, leaking more gold, is attention-grabbing. And the cover story (teased with a Boom!) is tantalizing: business is thriving, oil deals are flowing, McMansions are rising... in Iraq. We're not the most generous judges of Joanne Lipman's Portfolio, and the dissection of the lavishly funded Conde Nast title is a monthly ritual. Even if we were fair, we'd have to say: author Denis Johnson's feature, like Iraq itself, promises much and doesn't deliver. Why not?

CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric can't wait to show you these new cartoons on her show, which explain complicated stuff, like what a "superdelegate" is, apparently Katie was confused about that but "now I get it!" thanks to one of the cartoons. Complete with funny "magical" type music, the cartoon explained how a superdelegate is like a wizard created by the Godless Democrats to have a special magical vote at the convention, and also is like the Wizard of Oz, except the Wizard of Oz is supposed to be a powerless facade with a man behind the curtain and superdelegates are powerful. In fact the whole Oz analogy is so bad it is giving people headaches, but Katie thinks the whole thing overall is awesome, so expect to see a lot more cartoons on CBS newscasts, like maybe something whimsical on ethnic warfare in Kenya. Wizard superdelegate video after the jump.

Harris Poll asked TV viewers, both Democrat and Republican, to name their favorite and least liked news personalities. The results of the survey, crunched and displayed on our chart, are fascinating.

Earlier this month, a $150 million lawsuit was filed against Time Warner and AOL, with some stunning charges: Credit card fraud, civil rights violations, and discrimination towards people with "bowel problems." Why haven't you heard of this scandal? Probably the same reason you haven't heard of the other recent lawsuits against Martha Stewart, Brad Pitt, Jake Gyllenhaal, George Clooney, Padma Lakshmi, Anderson Cooper, Oprah Winfrey, Slobodan Milosevic, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Lemony Snicket, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and Mack's Famous Boardwalk Pizza: They were all filed by Jonathan Lee Riches, the most suing-est federal prisoner you ever could hope to meet! Just this month, Riches has filed hundreds of suits against the most famous people, places, and things in the world. And he has some VERY serious complaints.

Katie Couric has "rarely" drawn an audience as large as the man she replaced atop the CBS Evening News, Bob Schieffer, the Times notes. Schieffer added 300,000 viewers during his 18 month tenure; Couric trails her rivals by two million after 17 months on the job. Yet Schieffer just announced he will retire and Couric remains in the anchor chair. [Times]