Today Is So Yesterday

When I was in high school I was a huge fan of the Today show. I loved waking up each morning and getting that day's top news stories from Matt, Katie and Ann. On my birthday, I’d watch the program from start to finish, as Katie and I celebrated our special day together. But a few years ago, I stopped watching the Today show. It had nothing to do with the departure of Katie, but instead, of the departure of actual news.

Earlier this week, I woke up at 6 a.m. to go stand in line to get my passport -- only to be turned away and told to come back 2 days before my flight. (When I arrived home, I found an e-mail saying my passport had been processed and I’d receive it the following day. The two events were not related.) But since I was already up, I turned on Today and thought I’d give it another chance. Surely, I presumed, at least the first hour would be have some hard news.

I was wrong. At 7:10 Matt was interviewing John McCain, who answered a few questions about his sinking ship of a campaign, but mainly spoke about his new book. I changed the channel and didn’t return until 7:30, when Matt was conducting another “exclusive” interview. No, he wasn’t having a tête-à-tête with Desmond Tutu or former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, but was talking with the boy who caught Hank Aaron’s record-breaking homerun baseball.

Suddenly, I remembered why I turned my back on the show years ago. I was reminded of previous hard-hitting news stories about men who cry, the best way to remove bunions and the differences between various cuts of meat.

So what happened to Today? A few years ago, USA Today published a front-page story asking the same question; criticizing the show's lack of hard news. You know things are bad when USA Today is commenting on your lack of credibility. In my opinion, the show went downhill long before Katie jumped ship, but when Al Roker moved from weather reader to "journalist."

In September, Today is adding another hour of programming; expanding the show to 4 hours each day. With even more time to fill, be sure to look for groundbreaking exposes on blue vs. black ink, the loudest birds, and how to get your wainscoting looking its brightest.

Didn't I already see this story on the cover of TIME?