September 5 - Katie Couric Reads Well

Katie Couric began her first night as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" on Tuesday. Now, I have a pre-existing opinion of Ms. Couric. She was the subject of one of my first blogs. That blog was inspired when Katie began the long goodbye in announcing her departure from the Today Show last April.

With the advent of the 24 news channels, the emphasis on the network news anchor has been diminished.

It is a sad state when the messenger becomes more important than the message. I remember when Warren Cronkite, John Chancellor, and David Brinkley reported the news. There was an innate sense of trust. Too much, the politics of the news anchor bleeds into the news selection and delivery. That was the downfall of Dan Rather.

The Cincinnati Enquirer asked that I join a panelist of reviewers of her first broadcast. We were sequestered like a jury in the 10th floor conference room of the Enquirer Building. I quickly learned I was out-manned, as there were 6 women on the panel.

The newscast began as Katie was introduced by a voiceover recorded by the legendary Walter Cronkite, whose tenure as CBS anchor ended in 1981. Apparently Dan Rather was on special assignment. No one else in the room caught this ingenious transition. I knew very quickly that style over substance would be the focus of the majority of the reviewers.

This was confirmed when at the first commercial break there was a disparity of opinion. It was all focused on Katie’s attire. Why this is important to the viewer, I don’t know.

The Enquirer attributed the following quote to me. “Was it a slow news day?” I stated this in reference to the fluff through out the broadcast. I had many more in-depth comments that did not get printed. I offer them below.

The premiere was too jammed with "new features," as if the producers feared people would give Couric only one night's chance before they ran away to some other option.

Additionally there was no flow to the news. Couric was talking about the 9-11 anniversary, then about executive changes at the Ford Motor Co. and then about the late Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter who died over the weekend when he was attacked underwater by a stingray. BTW is it in poor taste if people shed Crocodile Tears on his passing? She covered the three stories in less than a minute.

These little mini-stories were rammed together with no indication from Couric that she was changing topics. She needs work, and help, at reading off the prompting device and making it clear when the focus is about to shift.

Other new segments included “Eye on your Money” and “free Speech.” The free Speech segment turned out to be the oldest idea in television. Have some well-known or obscure blowhard pop up and do a rant into the camera. On this show, it was the Morgan Spurlock, who became famous by making a movie, Super Size Me, in which he ate at McDonald's every day for a month. How's that for credentials? I see hundreds of Super Sized people every time I leave the house.

Then the show reached its lowest point. Katie showed a photograph of the love child of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Was I suddenly watching Access Hollywood? How is this news?

In summary, I thought I was watching ACTION FIGURE KATIE. Within the confines of a thirty-minute broadcast, we saw Katie stand in front of the desk, stand behind the desk, sit on a couch, cross and re-cross her legs more often than Sharon Stone, and finally lean against the desk. If she had knelt, we would have had a complete Catholic Mass.

The end of the broadcast while Katie was performing her last aerobic maneuver of leaning against the edge of a desk. She acknowledged that many people were wondering how she would sign off. Couric played clips of other signoffs, ranging from Cronkite's "and that's the way it is" to Rather's ridiculed "Courage" to the fictitious movie anchorman Ron Burgundy’s (Will Ferrell) "You stay classy, San Diego.”

"I'm not sure any of those will work for me," Couric said, and then asked viewers, in all seriousness, to log onto the CBS News web site and send her suggestions.

"And who knows," she said, "maybe one will actually stick."

WHAT A COP-OUT. Five months, millions of dollars, and all they have is a contest to come up with a catchy close.

How about this.

“I’m Katie Couric. This was the Liberal View of the News. I wear a lot of make-up along with short skirts, and 6-inch stiletto heels. I’ve gained 20 pounds in the last week and I’m overpaid. Good Night.”


Below is the larger version of the Enquirer article. A more accurate title would have been, "Couric's Teleprompter Reading Impresses Seven out of Eight People."