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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

"Katie, You Ignorant Slut"

Dan Rather has been quoted on the MSNBC "Morning Joe" show as saying,

"I want to make clear that I have nothing against Katie Couric at all. She’s a very nice person and I have a lot of friends at CBS News. However, it was clear at the time and I think it has become even clearer that the mistake was to try to bring the ‘Today’ ethos to the evening news and to dumb it down, tart it up, in hopes of attracting a younger audience."

I find the phrase "tart it up" interesting. What does "tart" refer to? Or whom?

He might as well have said Katie "slutted" up the news.

Unfortunately, had CBS really sought to "tart up" the news and bring in a va-va-va-voom Paula Zahn/Mary Hart type, say, in her early 30s, the ratings for the Evening News probably would have been better. It's the "Anderson Cooper" formula -- 'cause he's hot.

So yeah, I agree with some of what Rather is saying. But when he says "tarted up," I can't help but see it as a dig at Couric herself. Which is beneath him.

6 comments:

  1. I find Couric kinda tarty too. Same with Matt Lauer, Tim Russert, etc. Pretty much the whole Today Show crew is too tarty. They're lightweight and self-obsessed. The only one of the lot who has any worth at all is Al Roker, who's usually woefully misused.

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  2. Tim Russert

    I like Tim. I enjoy MEET THE PRESS. He's pretty on top of things - but can still be friendly - and hard-hitting at the same time.

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  3. Dunno, David, Timmeh hasn't been the same ever since Karl Rove got to him. Although there are signs he's snapping out of his "I Am The President's Man" stupor, I'm reluctant to give him the benefit of the doubt. Fool me once, shame on me, fool me tw-- er, um-- won't get fooled again!

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  4. Fool me once, shame on me, fool me tw-- er, um-- won't get fooled again!

    Fair enough. I think he's better than the rest of the bunch - but your mileage varies, I suppose. I enjoy watching him grill people about the War in Iraq. It captivates me.

    But, you know Al Roker hates us epileptics, so .. there's that ;-)

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  5. Trying to force the discussion into a male vs female thing isn't really doing the discussion a service. Its also something that Les Moonves is trying as to avoid the more valid points Rather brought it (classic political trick being employed about a new division, shudder at the implications).

    For Couric, she does deserve some of the blame and the attempts to shield her because she is the "first female night anchor", not an entirely correct statement btw, also does no one a server. Her failure at the role and managements implicit support of that failure is going to make it that much more difficult for anotehr female to rise to the role.

    Couric was a bad choice from day one. She isn't even a reporter. Its just that simple. As it was proved in that plagarism issue that got one of her producers fired....she doesn't write her own copy. She just "approves it" even for a segment called something like what "Katie's journal". Nevermind such a segment during the news but she couldn't even write the copy for her own segment?

    When I was in school, writing your name on other people's work was plagarism, but now just par the course for news.

    Lets be honest, "new anchors" are not reporters, not writers, not researchers, not fact finders. They are readers of someone else's work doing the above.

    That is all they are so the only thing they should bring to the table is a gravatis and seriousness about what they are reading and Couric just can't do it. She doesn't have the depth. Its not a sex thing, its a she herself doesn't have the ability and the way viewers have tuned out (of both sexes) by the millions have shown others think it too.

    When your know someone is payed $14 million a year to do a job...the expectations change accordingly and she simple failed to match them.

    The failure in management is their attempt to bring the morning news info-tainment style to night and with couric and the changes made to accomdate her inherent weakness, it blew up and management is simply ignoring the problems to protect "the talent".

    Wish I was in the news/entertainment biz so could be so well protected. Makes for great job security.

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  6. Dan Rather is one to talk -- he demolished CBS's credibility in the evening news department quite a bit himself when he took over for Walter Cronkite.

    He once was a great reporter, but replacing the most trusted man in America with a raving lunatic probably wasn't a good idea.

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