Is Katie Couric's goose cooked?

Once again, reports have the CBS evening news anchor getting the shove, likely after the elections, because of the third-place show's low ratings. This latest report appears in today's Wall Street Journal and has all the signs of a story planted by network executives.

The story has CBS News executives shopping about for a replacement, reportedly a top news talent whose contract is due to expire, with the aim of reviving the network's broadcast after two years of Couric and many years of Dan Rather, who replaced legendary anchor Walter Cronkite and over time saw the newscast slide from first to third place.

After an initial surge to the top of the ratings, Couric's newscast also has fallen off steeply. Last year she hit an all-time low for "Evening News," averaging fewer than 6 million total viewers. Her numbers have increased a bit since then, but she still remains well behind NBC and ABC, most notably among the adults 25-54 she was hired to attract.

For the week ended April 6, she averaged a 1.5 in that demo, 29 percent behind the other two newscasts.

Both CBS and Couric spokespeople have released statements denying that any change of anchors is in the works.

A year ago, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist reported that network executives were planning to dump Couric and by the same timetable, after the 2008 elections. But the source then was apparently Bob Schieffer, who had been holding down the anchor's seat when Couric was hired and was quite unhappy about being shoved aside.

Just why CBS executives would be leaking such a story, if in fact they did, is something of a mystery. Couric's ratings have long been down, falling shortly after she took over from Schieffer.

And while many at CBS dislike Couric and blame her for the show's poor ratings, what blame there is to be passed out lands squarely on the shoulders of CBS head Les Moonves.

It was Moonves who lured Couric away from NBC's "Today" with a lush salary--a reported $15 million a year--and promises of entirely reinventing how the nightly news was reported, with Couric, a respected interviewer, serving as Moonves' instrument of change. The aim was to cozy up the broadcast with longer, less news-driven features and interviews.

It was an experiment that outsiders predicted would fail--nightly news viewers are older and resist change--and quite soon all the changes Moonves introduced were trimmed back.

This latest report comes amid yet more upheaval at CBS News. The division is reportedly in the process of laying off roughly 1 percent of its workforce to save money, and reports surfaced earlier this week that it was in talks with CNN to combine some newsgathering operations, another budget-tightening move.

If in fact Couric is cut loose--just over two years into her five-year contract--CBS will be faced with buying her out and finding a replacement, which would surely be a daunting challenge for a number of reasons.

Any top-of the-heap talent would rightly worry that he or she would end up being dumped as Couric has.

They'd also have to contend with working for a news operation that by all accounts is poorly funded and not particularly well managed.

Couric, though damaged by the CBS experience, would have no trouble finding work. The Journal article suggests she'd be a prime candidate to take over for CNN chat show host Larry King, who is 74 and has one more year on his contract.