Oh no. Katie’s in a quagmire again. As I blogged back in July, Katie Couric
seems to be a lightning rod for criticism, especially when she’s discussing her anchoring job on the CBS Evening News. The latest topic of controversy is a video of Couric making fun of Dan Rather. Well, not Dan himself, but his obsession with his appearance and wardrobe during a live outdoor broadcast some years ago.
Why would Couric make fun of a legend-in-his-own-mind like Dan Rather? Well, maybe it’s because Rather, when asked during an interview to give his opinion of her performance, dismissively accused the network – and not-so-indirectly the woman herself – of “dumbing it down and tarting it up.” Instead of calling Rather a pompous airbag (which would have easily rolled off my tongue – OK, something much worse would have), Couric took the slam in stride. For a while there, media types were queuing up to criticize Couric, so Rather’s comment had to take a number and stand in line.
Fast-forward a few months and it turns out that Katie, in an off-the-air moment, did some needling of her own. In the video, Couric jokes, “I’m going to be like Dan Rather.” She then adds, “Geez, don’t you think he deserves a little payback?” She begins to laugh and says, “This tart is ready to go!” Watching the video of Couric having fun with her staff and crew will make little sense if you haven’t seen the Rather video, so let’s start with that one:
Was that as silly to you as it was to me?
Here’s Couric’s take:
Two things make this all very humorous to me. (1) Rather was extremely quick and more than happy to jump on the bandwagon of offering his negative opinion of Couric’s journalistic credibility. Smells like sour grapes. (2) Rather is suing CBS, his old bosses, for allegedly making him the scapegoat for incorrect information Rather reported as fact. Simply put, the lawsuit is Rather’s attempt to polish up his bruised ego and image because his own journalistic credibility has taken a hit.
So watching Mr. War-coverage-over-celebrity-coverage spend 20 long, inane and ridiculous minutes discussing whether or not he should wear a trench coat on air during an outside news feed in Seattle – and if he chooses to wear the trench coat, should the collar be up or down? – gave me a laugh and a hearty “Oh, brother” moment. It’s annoying to watch Rather care so much about his appearance, now that I know he later took swipes at Couric for not being a “real journalist.” The chatter around the radio talk shows is that Couric’s mocking video is in poor taste. There’s a part of me that thinks, “Yeah, she shouldn’t have done it” (although it was not for public consumption), but that part of me is in a very heated debate with the part of me that says, “That’s dang funny, Katie, and you couldn’t have made fun of a more deserving guy under the circumstances!” Did she cross a line? Is this much ado about nothing? Should she have kept the coat unbuttoned?
