Katie Soon to Get the Ax
Two years ago CBS News anchor Dan Rather used falsified documents in his ill-fated Texas National Guard story. For that miscue they ran him out of Dodge and took away his six-shooter. A mere 10 months after she took over, Katie Couric now faces a similar fate.
When Katie made her debut on September 5, over 13 million people tuned in. Now, she’s lucky if she can pull in 6 million on a given night, leaving CBS News a distant third behind ABC’s Charles Gibson and NBC’s Brian Williams. “I’ve gone through a bit of a feeding frenzy and there’s blood in the water and I’ve got some vulnerabilities,” Couric admitted in a recent New York magazine interview. [http://nymag.com/news/features/34452]
Behind her glitzy $2.9 million set, things have turned grim. One producer confided that Couric is “going through hell.” Recently Couric snapped when editor Jerry Cipriano used the word “sputum” in one story. Couric flew into a rage, repeatedly slapping Cipriano on the arm. (Isn’t there supposed to be a law against that sort of thing?)
To hear it from Katie, lingering sexism is to blame for her poor showing. “I’m sure there is a percentage of the population that for whatever reason may not feel completely comfortable with a woman in a heretofore male-dominated role,” she ominously warns.
But that pat answer doesn’t account for the fact that her most vocal critics are women like Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times and TV writer Gail Shister. And last week Myrna Blyth wrote a caustic piece deriding her as “Princess Katie.”
Couric’s biggest mistake was her straight-arming of white males over 40, the demographic that represents the backbone of the evening news. These guys didn’t warm to Katie opening the show with a breezy, “Hi, everyone.” And I doubt many were impressed by the baby pictures of Suri Cruise.
And given Couric’s well-known embrace of all things feminist, her male viewers had good reason for concern. Over the years she has done ideologically-tinged features on the gender wage gap, domestic violence, as well as singing hosannas for Hillary Clinton. [www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/060418]
In a 1997 interview of Nicole Contos, the jilted bride of Tasos Michael, Couric asked, “Have you considered castration as an option?”
Looks like the real sexism lies on the other side of the TV screen.
But the truth is, Katie likes to have it both ways. First she flaunts her legs on camera and allows her cutey-pie picture to be plastered on every New York City bus. But when her ratings take a nose-dive, she tries to blame it on those Neanderthal men who objectify women.
Then there’s the matter of her $15 million salary, which CBS was able to afford only by taking a sizeable whack from the paychecks of Ed Bradley, Morley Safer, and Lesley Stahl. Couric is disingenuous when she claims that she didn’t expect her budget-busting paycheck would become an issue with the other CBS staff members who can’t afford their own 5-person entourage.
When Couric went to Amman, Jordan last November, hairdresser Mela Murphy was informed she would be traveling with the unwashed masses, rather than sitting in first class with Katie. Murphy flew into a rage and made it known that the CBS producers were “lucky to have their jobs.”
There’s little doubt that Couric revels in her celebrity status. Tune in to CBS’s 60 Minutes, there’s Katie. Walk through the airport, and Katie is reminding us to get a colon check. Pass through the check-out line, the gossip rags are taking bets on Katie’s latest heart-throb. And go to the bookstore to buy a woman’s magazine, more Katie!
So while Couric was the effervescent host of NBC’s Today, she is out of her league as a news anchor. CBS News president Sean McManus agrees: “A lot of things that made Katie successful in the morning probably don’t work in the evening news broadcast.”
Katie lacks the gravitas (remember the on-air colonoscopy?), ability to connect with her audience, and hard-news experience. Viewers want to see solid reporting, not America’s Sweetheart chasing an exclusive with a lip-glossed celebrity.
Even Katie realizes the whole thing may have been a terrible mistake. When asked if she would have taken the job if she had known it was going to turn out this way, Couric admits, “It would have been less appealing to me. It would have required a lot more thought.”
So while CBS engineers her graceful exit and scales back that bloated salary package, the question remains, what will be the verdict of the guys who were treated so shabbily by Katie Couric? Can they ever be convinced to return to CBS News?
| More from Carey Roberts
Stumble It!
July 18th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I recently tuned in to Katie only because her station was the only one of the three giving the nightly news instead of replacing it with an extended obnoxious eulogy of Lady Bird Johnson.
I generally can’t even stand looking at Katie anymore, much less listening to her, but she must be learning because what I saw wasn’t bad like it was in the past. She’s learning and getting better, but it may be too late. Although she is getting better, who can take her seriously after everything she has said and done in the past?
Her excuse of blaming her problems on the sexism of the audience is so cliche and so typical of today’s so-called “liberated, strong, independent” American woman.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
I don’t watch SeeBS News nor am I watching Charlie Gibson or Brain Williams. The whole leftwork evening news is old news by the time they go to air.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
i say keep her there. its not like iam hoping cbs upgrades for heavens sake. of the 6,000,000 who watch that drek, 5,999,999 are brain dead anyway so who cares? if you know someone who tunes into katie, you know an idiot.
July 18th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
One of the reasons why Couric was offered big bucks to host CBS News involves the growing numbers of men who get their news from the Internet – particularly those men under 40 years old, rather than watching the daily news on television.
Couric was SUPPOSED to attract greater numbers of women to watch CBS News, to offset the decline in male viewership.
Well, here’s a real shocker – it didn’t work. Not only did Couric fail to entice large numbers of women to watch the news, she has managed to piss off, offend, or annoy a significant percentage of those males over 40 years old, rubbing salt into the wounds of the highly-paid idiots who promoted her to host CBS News.
Like Dittohd, I find it ironic that Couric gives herself credit for her past successes, but blames her failures on men…………… one more good reason to avoid marrying American women!
July 18th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Eventually most viewers will tire of the formula “man bad, women good” message. Live by feminism, die by feminism.
July 18th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Katie’s whining about male chauvinism being the cause of her abyssmal ratings is sheer nonsense.
Within a couple of minutes I thought of Laura Ingrahm, “Cokey” Roberts and Linda Chavez, all of whom I would watch and listen to in a moment.
July 18th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
P.S. I wonder what Edward R Murrow and the rest of his “boys” kile Charles Collingwood, Larry Laseur and Winston Burdett, all of whom were extremely knowledgeable and articulate, are thinking now.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
CBS deserves the ass-whipping they are getting. Pandereing in all it’s forms is what network news does and is about and “Perky Katie” is just the latest in a long line of losers in this field. Katie, if you will just report the facts as they are, not how you see them and your opinion of them, your ratings will improve immediately. Jesus, I had a dream for a moment…….
July 19th, 2007 at 6:40 am
There are plenty of women I would watch; presently it’s Robin Meade on HNN / CNN. Is her show perfect? No, but she mainly sticks to the news and forgets the fluff pieces that FOX, CNN, GMA and their ilk like to entertain us with.
Couric needs to go back to strictly doing fluff pieces; better yet, just give it up and go home bitch.
July 19th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Jeeez, you guys,
I for one don’t intend to pander to that stupid sexist pig couric by saying I do/watch watch other women in the news. Don’t have to. The trumpted up crap she and her equally sexist pig amerikan females can kiss my backend. She stinks and thats that. Good God, dump her and be done with it. The comment about Don Imus made in several blogs on other blogs applies here as well, she makes these stupid comments based on lies and then whines about men, the very folk she blames everything on, for her short comingd. Imus made one (or two) comments that millions of laughed at and the leaft wing Couric butt lickers didn’t like and he vanished about as quick as a Somali chicken.
Hey, Couric, when they S*^t can you are you gonna attack the Meridith Veria (or whateverhernameis)? Go back and talk about baby crap and hairstyles with the 2 billion braindead women in the morning?
HA, you dreamin!
Matt Lauer
July 19th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Couric stated. In a 1997 interview of Nicole Contos, the jilted bride of Tasos Michael, Couric asked, “Have you considered castration as an option?”
This alone finished her off with the male population. She had no one to blame but herself. She said it.
July 19th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2006/0419roberts.html
July 19th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
http://www.opinioneditorials.com/guestcontributors/croberts_20060419.html
July 19th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
I don’t watch her news show…she’s got more money than most of of us will ever see any way so I don’t care if she stays on the air or not.
July 26th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
so know one seemed to get mad at her when she made her little comment to Nicole Contos, otherwise i would not be just now hearing about it. why did she get away with that?