How Much Abuse Can Katie Couric Take?

Fox News ^ | Thursday, April 26, 2007 | Susan Estrich

[COUNTrecount]

And why is so much of it coming from other women journalists?

It's been another tough week for Katie Couric. It's never easy to be the first woman anything. The good news is that you get a lot of attention. The bad news is that a lot of this attention is likely to turn into criticism, because it comes before you're really ready for it.

So it has been with Katie. As the newscast improves, the attacks have escalated, not dissipated. CBS does a perfectly respectable evening news show, tougher and sharper since producer Rick Kaplan came on board, but you'd never know it from reading the clips.

There's Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times, reporting that Katie intentionally glammed herself down when anchoring from Blacksburg, substituting light-colored slacks and little makeup for her usual costume. So what? Does that make her a less effective anchor or reporter? Does anyone know what Brian Williams has been wearing? Would it even occur to anyone to notice?

But Stanley's piece on how everyone shined but Katie was a wet kiss compared to the hatchet job Gail Shister did on the first woman solo anchor in the Philadelphia Inquirer this week. Relying on "inside sources," Shister reported that CBS now viewed the hiring of Katie Couric to anchor the news as a major mistake, which cannot be fixed, and that they were trying to figure out when and how to get her off the anchor desk.

Shister's story got huge play, notwithstanding CBS' denial of its accuracy, and within a day, Roger Friedman, here on foxnews.com, revealed that he had information suggesting that the main sources for the Shister article were Bob Schieffer, the man Katie replaced, and Lesley Stahl, a very old friend of mine who is now with 60 Minutes.

[Hornet19]

Not as much as she deserves!

[military cop]

Who is THIS a picture of?

RLTW

[Colonel_Flagg]

CBS does a perfectly respectable evening news show

Really no need to read past this point.

[theFIRMbss]

>my wife notices that nearly every night Williams wears too much eye shadow

Maybe that's your wife telling you she would like you to glam up a bit!

[COUNTrecount]

Plus

Plus

Equals

[stinkerpot65]

One thing I will say about Susan Estrich, she took for Rush Limbaugh when the corrupt Palm Beach prosecutor was trying to railroad him into prison.

[CharlesWayneCT]

The “1st woman anchor” meme is absurd. I could care less if every anchor was a woman. The idea that any of us is making our decision about watching news based on the gender of the person is insulting.

[rod1]

Susan hot?! with a closed mouth to boot?! A Bridey Murphy moment. That must have been in your prior life.

[wouldntbprudent]

But what really gets to me about the treatment of Couric is not the way the CBS suits are dealing with her, but the way her fellow women journalists are. Of all people, you'd think other women in the news business would understand just what Katie is up against and how her future is connected to ours. You'd think women would appreciate the challenge of settling into a role for which there are no role models, sitting in a chair that is usually occupied by older white men and convincing viewers to accept an attractive woman as equally credible.

It's not that women journalists should be giving her a pass because she's a woman, but that they should be the last to pile on because they understand best what she's up against. It hasn't worked that way.

I believe there is a special place in hell for women who do not support each other, particularly in our attacks on the glass ceiling. Too many women fail to understand that when one woman does make it, we all have an interest in her success, and an even bigger interest in her not failing.

This will happen to the Hildabeast as well. Women actually do not like to cheer on other women, at least of the beast variety.

[rod1]

Look anyone on FR could have told CBS they were fools for hiring Katie Couric and wasteful for paying her anything. and then they followed up that clossal blunder by hiring the Bob Shrum of broadcasting....Rick Kaplan. It is simply hard to image a great succession of stupid moves beginning with Rathergate.

After the Couric disaster, Kaplan was the last person they needed. Les Moonves would have been better off hiring a real pro..maybe a Bimbo-prodigy Mr. Fix-it like Bruce Lindsey.

Better watch your cat Katie.

[detch]

Perky Katie tries so hard to be a serious journalist — by going over-the-top in criticizing conservatives, and being a shill for Hillary and Al Gore in 2000.

Anybody remember her crying on the air during the 2000 election after Florida was declared?

CBS was dumb to bring her on board — now we’ll wait ten years (with them in 3rd place week-after-week) for them to get rid of her.