Catfight! RAWR-R-R-R-R-!
Posted on 04/27/2005 7:13:16 AM PDT by veronica
I'll bet Katie Couric never expected to get the smackdown she received on Monday morning in the pages of the New York Times, inevitably her paper of choice. But TV critic Alessandra Stanley slapped the "Mean Girl of Morning TV" hard and said in print what has been media gossip for months: that NBC is in a panic about the falling ratings of that cash cow, The Today Show. Her Cuteness is no longer the most popular girl in the crowd, with "likeability" ratings in the toilet. In fact, Katie's recent Q ratings were lower even than Dan Rather's. Remember him?
We've all watched as Katie has grown richer, smugger, and more chic. But for years, Today's chipmunk-cheeked, Clinton-loving perkette sold women, the primary audience for the morning show's mélange of a little news and a lot of fluffy features, the notion that she is just like them: a harried working mom.
In her "I'm just like you" phase Katie used to give speeches to adoring audiences describing a typical day in her life. She would tell them, for example, that she was on the phone setting up a play-date for one of her daughters like an ordinary mom, when a staffer beeped her to tell her President Carter was on the line. "President Carter who just won the Nobel Prize? Okay, put him on." He was calling, she would confide, throwing all modesty to the winds, to thank her for all she had done for him over the years. Yep, just an ordinary mom with a $15-million-a-year paycheck, a Park Avenue co-op, a millionaire boyfriend, a high-priced personal trainer, and the power to control two prime hours of TV five mornings a week.
Andrew Lack, former president of NBC, described Katie, during the good times, as a "fist in the velvet glove," while for years her staff has called her "Katie Dearest." Bryant Gumbel, who was considered the heavy when they were Today Show co-anchors once complained, "I've had one assistant for 18 years. Somebody who shall remain nameless went through five in five years. I had one makeup and hair person the whole time I was at NBC. Somebody who shall remain nameless went through three or four." Katie has also pushed out several of Today's executive producers, sending one packing just last week. The show has had four top producers since 2001. Here-Today-gone-tomorrow has now become a career path at NBC.
When I was a magazine editor, in my personal dealings with Katie I found her both demanding and petulant. But the stress of crashing ratings has obviously made her inner Cruella de Vil — always there under the surface — emerge full-time. Alessandra Stanley writes, "Lately her image has grown downright scary: America's girl next door has morphed into the mercurial diva down the hall. At the first sound of her peremptory voice and clickety stiletto hells, people dart behind doors and douse the lights."
What is off-putting, especially to her former female fans, is the new buffed, glam persona Katie has become. Each morning she is now expertly and heavily made up — not exactly the look most harried working moms can emulate. And while doing interviews, her bare legs in stiletto mules are perpetually center stage, getting more attention from the camera than the guest she is supposed to be interviewing. On Tuesday morning this week her outfit, perhaps in defiance of her critics, seemed a salute to every spring fashion trend, from large gold hoop earrings (bohemian trend) to a gold-trimmed blouse (glitter trend) to a short ruffled skirt (flirty skirty trend). Yesterday, AOL debated Katie's diminishing appeal all day on its entertainment site. One Katie basher — and there were many — complained, "I don't want to see someone with bare legs and open toe shoes giving me the news. Why can't she look professional?"
But what I think has contributed to Katie's major loss of appeal is that millions of women have finally caught onto the liberal bias in much of her reporting. Katie, like many women in media, just assumed that all women — just because they were women — agreed with them about issues such as gun control and abortion. She has always been at her sharpest, interviewing those with conservative points of view while throwing softballs at her political favorites. And Katie's attitudes and opinions did have considerable influence with women. That's because for years she has come into millions of women's homes on a daily basis, seemingly so concerned about their needs, able to both dish diets and criticize the government's policy in Iraq, swoon over celebrities and swoon over Hillary.
Katie marketed herself like a friend — a sophisticated girlfriend — and women want to agree with their friends — up to a point. In the last election the majority of married women with children, exactly the Today Show's typical viewers, voted for President Bush. Many participants in AOL's chat room yesterday complained about Katie's obvious bias and said they had departed to Fox and Friends, Fox News's morning show, or Good Morning America, where Diane Sawyer shrewdly seems to hide her own opinions behind, in Stanley's words, her "poised, creamy insincerity."
Now that the Times has assessed Katie as a liability and concluded that Today needs a lot less of her, won't it be fascinating to watch how a panicky, profit-obsessed NBC responds to such on-the-mark criticism.
Stay tuned.
— Myrna Blyth, long-time editor of Ladies Home Journal and founding editor of More, is author of Spin Sisters: How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness — and Liberalism — to the Women of America. Blyth is also an NRO contributor.
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Thanks for the ping!
The bad news is really cascading down on Katie, isn't it? I must admit that I don't see any particular signs of strain in her on-air persona - she is a professional in that sense. But I'd like to think that our threads, in their own small way, have contributed to the realization among her viewership, noted in the article, that Katie is a preachy liberal.
Catfight! RAWR-R-R-R-R-!
...but who's counting.
"Katie Dearest" is a reference to the book "Mommie Dearest" a book about how Joan Crawford abused her daughter. It's meant as a cut, not a compliment.
....is the new buffed, glam persona Katie has become.......
I've always thought that the "new Katie" is being dressed and made-up by her pimp!
I would not be surprised. Folks all over the place are aware of FR and I would venture a guess that more than one person at NBC has checked in to see how the Perky One does with some of the people out in the real world.
I have a blog in which I keep most of my Today Show FR threads, and actually sent Today an email with a link to it a couple months ago.
Unsurprisngly, they haven't responded ;-)
"Mommie dearest" is NOT a compliment. Quite the opposite.
"Remember she wore black like a widow for a week after Bush was re-elected. Her mascara all over her face, lol."
Yes. The night (early morning) when Bush was decleared the winner way back in the first election, she was so steamed she refused to talk to Brokaw or Russert or anyone else about GW. She just sulked and made occasional snide comments about elections being stolen. Even when Gore challenged the returns and Florida was left undecided, she had a hard time getting out of her funk.
The media figures and sports figures are paid regal sums they do not deserve, so they act regal. They seldom have enough talent to last very long. When they fade they really look assinine, trying to hang onto their enormous salaries while acting even more outrageous.
I especially like seeing Katie Kupcake flame out.
BUMP!
That's about as subtle as this:
Matt Liar and Katty Colon....what a pair.
Cant understand why the reds states barf.
Diane Sawyer is actually quite a bit older than Katie, and IMO just as liberal, but she has not vamped it up in a vain attempt to look young. She is the epitome of a classy, mature, modern woman; she does not change her hairstyle or color every week, she wears little makeup, and her clothes and jewelry are elegant and demure. She is not trying to be something she isn't. Her sense of herself is so clear, calming, and appealing. Katie just doesn't seem to know who she is anymore and it is jarring, especially first thing in the morning.
That said, it's humorous to see the jealousy peeking through the veneer or so-called objective reporting by her critics.
Fact is, Katie Couric won't have to work another day in her life. Who among us wouldn't become a bit arrogant if we had the experience of her tv stardom?
Just like everyone else, I am mesmerized by the trainwreck. ;^)
It's what's inside that counts.
I think katie DOES have a basically cute face and body. But you can see that inner evil flashing out of her eyes and occasionally distorting her whole face. Then the fact that she is cute looking physically just draws more attention to the inner cruelty and pride that dominate within and are manifested in her biased reporting style.
Leftists believe that you don't have to adjust to reality, instead you force reality conform to your desires--which is not a good habit in a news reporter.
That reminds me of when Katie smugly said she was not going to Iraq because she was a "single mom." EXCUSE ME?!!!!
Hahaha, I never could stand her. At her age, she's wearing teenager clothes??? I should tune in once in a while for my morning belly laugh :)
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