The author talked about how when he first met Reagan he though he was an "apparent airhead," but over time he came to know that Reagan was "a very bright man."
In all its pre-interview airing hype, Couric and the crew at Toady (spelling intentional) made it seem like the biographer's conclusion was that the Gipper is an airhead. Note the lack of the word "apparent."
Either they were intentionally lying to build hype about the story or they were totally incompetent in reading the book (if they even bothered to read the book) OR they were biased in their presentation, and took the release of the book as an opportunity to independently slander President Reagan, for ideology or money.
Since you expend so much energy and effort to shout from the roof tops in this thread how you are right, and everyone else is wrong, you could try a bit harder to be factual and not "spin." Couric did not butcher Morris' conclusions and then slander President Reagan with "The Gipper was an airhead!" to millions in a snide remark to open her show to "provoke interest in the Today show interview" as you stated. She did it for selfish ideolgical reasons, and it was aped by her collegues at NBC (producers of the show, Matt Lauer).
Couric led the Today show with this:
KATIE COURIC, co-host: Good morning. The Gipper was an airhead! That's one of the conclusions of a new biography of Ronald Reagan that's drawing a tremendous amount of interest and fire today, Monday, September the 27th, 1999. ________________________________________________________
Then, the very next day, they still had not had enough of their dig at Reagan, so:
September 28, 1999, Tuesday KATIE COURIC reporting: Thank you Stone. (Voiceover) We'll look at the controversial new biography of Ronald Reagan. Does the author go too far? We'll ask him. _________________________________________________________
And then this:
September 28, 1999, Tuesday MATT LAUER, co-host: Good morning. For the first time, President Bush is responding to the controversial new biography of Ronald Reagan and, in particular, the author's assertion that Reagan was a great president but an airhead.
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It yesterdays Today show stint with Coulter and Couric, this is exactly what Ann referred to. She even clarified to Couric that she had led the show with that hit on Reagan, and Matt Lauer the next day.
Couric wanted to "move on" and asserted that Coulter was wrong; then promised a transcript (of coarse later, off the air, when the audience could not see that Coulter has spoken the truth, as you can re-read above).
The Today show proved Coulter's point by doing what they always do: lash out at anyone who questions their self-appointed clutch on the truth.