Couric under the microscope

  The unauthorized biography, "Katie: The Real Story" comes out today and it's a brutal, one-sided look at the woman who now sits in Walter Cronkite's chair on the "CBS Evening News."

Author Edward Klein takes Couric to task for everything from the length of her skirts to the men she dates.  Much of the book reads like the gossip that spreads around any workplace, and since gossip is rarely flattering, it paints Couric's behind-the-camera behavior as being the polar opposite from her on-air perky and friendly persona.

One thing is true: As Katie Couric nears a year as the only woman anchor of the top 3 network newscasts, she's struggling to find an audience.

What's your take on all this - were you a Katie fan when she was on the "Today" show, and are you a fan  now? Does she deserve all the scrutiny and criticism she's received in the past year? Or is she particularly vulnerable because she's a woman in a male-dominated business?

- Susan LoTempio

Comments

[Philbootny]

I've never quite understood the hubub surrounding Katie Couric. All the attention she receives centers on personality and style. She never has exuded - ahem - gravitas.
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Female/male, black/white/red/yellow/green gay/straight, etc. has no bearing here. She is the face of a billion-dollar brand: CBS Evening News. She'll get scrutinized for all manner of reasons.
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The larger point: When a journalist becomes a bigger story than the news she reports, it promotes shallowness and consumerism in the viewer. Quite often, I hear "serious" reporters lamenting the deteriorating sofistication in American news audiences.
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Well isn't cult of personality supposedly a bad thing?
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Physician, heal thyself.
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[Mark]

Granted people like Tom Brokaw had other reporting assignments besides the Today Show to launch their shot at anchor, and moving the interview chairs on to the set were a little much but this will tell the story with Katie. How she reacts and handles a crisis situation, such as a downturn in the war, or heaven forbid a terrorist attack. Second we are in the campaign season for the next year, we will see her political reporting skills in action. She needs to show her personality, moving her behind the desk, with a serious face and the glasses on at times is not her best situation.

[Ed Franks]

Broadcast news, NBC,CBS and ABC, is declining day by day. Why does the media continually make comparisons to the past (Cronkite)and glorify it?
Fox News on cable beats them all. It's balanced news, not news with a political agenda.