This is one of those Jake Tapper-esque “Just sayin’, it’s a fact, just sayin’…” style twats from CBS’ Mark Knoller, who probably doesn’t mean to imply anything, but is just sayin’, this is a statistic, just puttin’ it out there, interpret it how you will, just sayin’. [Twitter]

The Summer of Celebrity/News Death continues! Don Hewitt, the guy who created famous old-people program 60 Minutes, is dead at 86. He, like all people who died this summer and got obits in the NYT, is/was a legend. Legend of what, you ask? TeeVee! Before this guy, we hear, there was no such thing as the TeeVee News Magazine. We don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing — well, on second thought, it was probably a bad thing. The television news killed the important newspaper industry, remember? And now look where we are! [CBS News]

He hadn’t anchored the Evening News in nearly three decades, but Walter Cronkite set the standard for serious, authoritative network news. The stuff he covered was the biggest stuff of the 20th Century: from WWII to JFK, Apollo to Vietnam, Chicago ‘68 to Watergate and the slow rot of America beginning in the mid-1970s. MORE »

We will miss this clown, Sarah Palin, when she’s sent back to Alaska. Ha, not really. Oh, and after the jump, this discombobulating thing from Harry Shearer. MORE »

Here’s the promised new chapter of The World’s Most Painful Interview, in which CBS journalistic monster Katie Couric continues to look almost sad about how fucking dumb this Sarah Palin proves to be, again and again, whenever she is asked to speak. MORE »

A couple of days ago, Jonathan Martin mentioned a particularly disturbing SECRET video that CBS News was sitting on from the ongoing Couric-Palin Sessions. Palin, supposedly, was asked some question about the Supreme Court and couldn’t discuss any other case beyond Roe Vee Wade: “There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.” Of course Jonathan Martin and his media vulture friends are all rumormongering liar Muslims who like smearing Palin because of racism and blood fetish. Then again, CBS has released some of the questions Couric asks in tonight’s installment, and one of them is: “Why do you think Roe v. Wade is a good or bad decision? What other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with?” Ruh roh. Although maybe Palin was only silent because CBS then started airing the Michelle Obama Whitey Tape?? [TPM Election Central]

The interview that finally made people appreciate news-person Katie Couric — the incredibly painful-to-watch Sarah Palin meltdown — will continue giving gifts to the American public. CBS apparently has two more Palin answers to another couple of Couric questions. Are they possibly as shamefully fantastic as the previous clips? We can Hope, America. [Washington Post, 2nd item]

• THIS IS EXTRAORDINARILY PAINFUL: All we’ll say is, Sarah Palin answered one of Katie Couric’s questions tonight with this line: “I’ll try to find you some [examples] and I’ll bring them to you.” UPDATE: Video! First and last parts are obviously the best:

  [Marc Ambinder]

Here is veteran CBS hand Bob Schieffer remembering his favorite convention memories from the past. He treated the 1968 Democratic convention as a sex holiday, because that’s where he impregnated his wife, as was the style of the time. [YouTube]

Katie Couric, having delivered the losingest ratings ever for two proud years at CBS Evening News, may leave after President McCain’s inauguration early next year. This would be far ahead of her scheduled departure date in 2011, but not a moment too soon for many aggrieved Bob Schieffer fans. [WSJ]

Famous whore Hillary Clinton, in some sobby vagina chat with Katie Couric following her New Hamsters victory, knew she would win, despite her own pollsters having her down by 11 points. The coffee, she says, was magically anti-Negro that morning: “On Tuesday morning when I got up before the sun was up, and was out helping to deliver coffee to everybody who was working for me, I felt really good by the time I came in around early afternoon.” Of course she felt good! Nothing like a good scripted cry to make you feel all dandy inside. MORE »