TVSquad

When I first saw the URL for wowowow.com, I thought it had to do with pain. You know, someone is hitting you over the head with a ruler and you're saying "ow...ow...ow!"

Upon closer inspection I see that it stands for WOW O WOW. It's a web site that launches this Saturday. It's described as a site for women over 40, and the people behind it include Lesley Stahl, Whoopi Goldberg, Candice Bergen, Lily Tomlin, Marlo Thomas, columnist Liz Smith, advertising veteran Mary Wells, publishing exec Joni Evans, and writer Peggy Noonan, among others.

Katie Couric just broke into CBS programming with the shocking news that longtime 60 Minutes journalist Ed Bradley died this morning of leukemia. He was 65.

I use the word shocking because I don't think there was any public indication that Bradley was sick from leukemia.

At the time of his death, Bradley was still working on 60 Minutes, and stories that he was working on still remain to be aired at a later date. He had been with 60 Minutes for 26 years and won several awards, including an Emmy, a Polk, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and a duPont citation.

Bradley was married to artist Patricia Blanchet.

Possibly. Sources say that the veteran newsman isn't happy with the way CBS execs are handling his contract negotiations, and he has told people he's "on strike." Not literally on strike, just not happy with the way things are going. Then again, he told the New York Daily News that he's honoring his contract, there has been no work slowdown, and he even taped a new opening for an old piece (the show is in summer reruns right now).

My guess? There are contract negotiations going on, but I'm sure Bradley is working the same way he always has, and the press is just trying to find juicy stuff to tease with about a longtime TV personality (shocking the press would do that, I know). The NYDN even tries to get him to talk about his contract, and he says he doesn't discuss his contract with anyone. I think that's the right response to that question no matter what the situation. I really doubt Bradley is walking around the CBS offices with a donut, talking to people in their cubicles, not doing any work, going back to his office to pout and play solitaire on his computer until producers give him more money.

At a speech yesterday at the annual convention of CBS affiliates, newly crowned CBS Evening News anchor says that she plans some changes for the show:

"The audience is more sophisticated than we give them credit for - they don't want a mechanical Ted Baxter ...I'm a serious, compassionate, caring person. I hope that comes out. People want a multidimensional [news anchor] and not someone they can put in a box."

She also added (and I'm glad she's finally saying this - I mean, no one else is):

"Anyone who watches Today knows that I've done more hard-hitting interviews than any evening news anchor."

A little self-serving, but so what? It's accurate.