dumbing it down, tarting it up

I don't find myself often agreeing with Dan Rather but this is pretty good:

Rather Derides Couric for Dumbing Down and ‘Tarting Up’ The News

Excerpt:

Dan Rather: "Well, I totally agree with you, Joe. I want to make clear that I have nothing against Katie Couric at all. She’s a very nice person and I have a lot of friends at CBS News. However, it was clear at the time and I think it has become even clearer that the mistake was to try to bring the ‘Today’ ethos to the evening news and to dumb it down, tart it up, in hopes of attracting a younger audience.

For futher reading, I recommend The Dan Rather file: Decades of Liberal Media Bias and CBS News admits
Bush documents can’t be verified