TV keeps pulling out some of the old veterans to keep interest alive. I noticed last week that Dick Clark will again host the News Years gala in New York’s Time Square. This will be the 100th year for him. He continues to do the show even after his stroke. The trick is to keep the camera about 100 yards away and have him say very few words. It’s pitiful to do this but it keeps interest up. Everyone tuned in to see the shaking Michael J. Fox just to observe someone severely affected with Parkinson’s. They don’t know or really care about stem cell research. It’s almost like seeing a free freak show. Using celebrities who are touched with a disease can be effective and I hope it is the case for Parkinson’s and Michael J. Fox. We do need to support stem cell research. One of the best examples in an affected celebrity was FDR for polio. The March of Dimes was the most effective fund raiser of all times and with very positive results. It’s still too bad that we have to resort to showing freakish things to get results.

Back to pulling out old veterans. CBS may need to do this with their evening news. Katie Couric continues to do poorly. She remains a distant third behind NBC and ABC. Last week she was ranked number seven with the other shows in her time slot in LA. They may have to pull Walter Cronkite back into the lineup even at his advanced age. There is even talk of pulling the mummy (picutred above) of the great Edward R. Murrow into service to save CBS. No one knows, or cares, about Dan Rather. If the Democrates win the upcoming election then all of the news people may be looking for work. Bush will be a lame duck and there will be no Republicans to bash and nothing to report after our troops have been pulled out of Iraq.