NEW YORK (AP) - CBS said Thursday it is sending incoming evening-news anchor Katie Couric on a tour of several cities to meet informally with viewers this summer and hear what they're interested in seeing on the news.What is this, The Variety Hour Starring Katie Couric? The news is what ever happened in the world that day...not what people are interested in.
How about a fair and balanced, unbiased account of events, instead of the leftist spin she's been putting on it for the last 20 years...for starters?
Let me guess, Berkeley, San Francisco, and the upper East side of Manhattan will qualify as representative of American cities.
What the people don't understand is that Katie Couric doesn't have any creative control over the news as CBS. She's a perky news reader with stiletto heels and short skirts...just like all female news readers on all the networks. There's nothing wrong with that if that's what gets people to tune in but don't act like she's running for office or doing something serious and will be responsive to viewers. She simply reads whatever left-slanted tripe the producer puts up on the teleprompter, just like he did for Rather. This is just a publicity stunt thinly veiled as a listening tour, nothing more.
The meetings will not be filmed and reporters won't be allowed in to cover them.
See, this serves two purposes: first, like Hillary's phony listening tour, it makes Katie appear genuinely interested in hearing what people want and not interested in publicity. Second, the absence of reporters or cameras gives CBS plausible deniability when tour attendees come out telling about how they demanded from Katie, an end to politically biased news coverage. All CBS has to do is say "prove it", and go about slanting the news as usual.
All this ado over Katie Couric is pure celebrity obsession. She's a news reader...a highly paid one...but still just a news reader.
3 comments:
Katie Couric absolutely abhors the term "perky" being used to describe her. She feels it diminishes her seriousness as a professional journalist.
I'm sorry Katie, but 4" stilettos, short skirts, and strategically sitting where the TV audience can see the most leg flesh during fluff pieces doesn't exactly scream "professional journalist at work".
If you want to be taken seriously as a journalist, do what Christianne Amanpour does, abandon all appearance pleasing habits and daintyness...cut your hair yourself with pruning shears, apply no makeup before going on air--simply stub out the last cig., guzzle some coffee and go--wear baggy chinos, combat boots, and a photographers vest, and adopt a phony foreign accent from a nondescript former eastern-bloc country. That's what a serious female journalist looks like.
But then again, for 30 million, CBS probably prefers "perky".
"perky news reader with stiletto heels and short skirts"...didn't you just describe EVERY female reporter on FOX. Come on guys- you can't have it both ways. A female news reporter does not have to look like a 1950s makeup-less frump who shops at the thrift store to be taken seriously. If that's the case wouldn't women in any profession need to look that way to be taken seriously? Unless of course, you're a Hooter's girl...but then again those girls are real brainers.
Yes, I did describe every news reader on FOX. The difference is that they are comfortable with the knowledge that, for better or worse, their looks have something to do with their viewership. All people, men and women, prefer to look at a reasonably attractive person reading the news to them.
Katie seems to want it both ways however...she wants to be stunningly attractive, a given, but she's also irrationally defensive at the suggestion that her attractivness plays a role in her popularity as a news reader.
I'm not saying Katie is not a skilled and talented journalist but, she wants to be attractive with the stilettos, short skirts, and strategic on-camera couch placement, but she wants people to love her for her journalistic acumen.
All I'm asking is why not be confident enough in your own abilities to accept recognition for being both beautiful and a talented journalist as well?
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