Katie Couric Doesn't Like Criticism One Little Bit
A few days ago, I posted a video that MoveOn produced on Katie Couric's stenography and encouraged C&Lers to write into CBS and express their disappointment at the lack of journalistic standards in Couric's reports.
Several of you have and both C&L and MoveOn have received feedback that is...oh, let's just say a little prickly:
From our comments:
Here is the response they sent me:
"Sorry you didn't get a chance to see much of the reporting from Iraq....if you had, you wouldn't have written such a note...imagine all your info came from a blog...too bad."
And to a MoveOn member (from a very polite letter):
"Actually most intelligent people were very impressed by the quality of our reports from Iraq and Syria ...Apparently you missed most of the interviews that were done over there...imagine you got your information from a blog somewhere..."
Hmmm....defensive much, Katie? Christy at Firedoglake:
Oh, I get it. Legitimate criticism from viewers can simply be ignored if you dismiss it as coming from a blog. But not asking the critical questions, repeating talking points wholesale, failing to follow-up when you are being snowed and charmed, and buying military spin outright while feeding it by the spoonful to your adoring public is just peachy? So much for the whole "journalistic integrity" canard. And the tanking ratings.
The two senior producers at CBS Evening News are Jim McGlinchy (jmp@cbsnews.com) and Betty Chin ( bc2@cbsnews.com). I'm working on e-mails to both them asking whether (a) this is the usual response of CBS to legitimate viewer criticism and (b) whether they would officially like to disavow this sort of customer non-service. I'll certainly let you know what, if any, response I get. No matter how snippy the response may be, the dodge and weave on the real issues on journalistic integrity come across loud and clear. Perhaps they should hear from you as well?
firepups rule
yeah..because blogs are known for their accuracy and integrity.
Trust CBS&CNN..ignore moveon.org.
Things that make you go HMMM @ 1:
Amen...!
Actually, this looks like a fun writing project for me tonight. Besides... I'm getting tired of writing my Senators and Congresscrook.
So is Katie a MILF?
You know, morning shows are quite different from real news. Or didn't Katie Realize that? I know that our news is more infotainment these days, but Katie isn't that young... she should surely remember what real journalism used to be... you know: Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Edward R. Murrow, Huntley and Brinkley, even Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw.
I don't fault her for wanting to do the real news and not the puff morning pieces, but damn, do the work! Ask the hard questions.
Watch it Katie, if your makeup gets anymore smeared you'll look like this:
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/music/AliceCooper/Images/AC-Stage.jpg
Is that where boosh got his Top Gun outfit for his infamous USS Abraham Lincoln speech?
LibertyLover @ 5:
Oh....I imagine she remembers...but...
9/11 changed everything.
Thank heavens we have George W. Bush, America's Greatest Conservative President
But with Lil' Katie so sensitive and all it's not very likely that the most important question of the last six miserable years will every be answered.
Well said, Christy at firedoglake, and I'm sure you, Ms. Belle, will be sending a similarly pertinent and concise response. I hope you manage to break through the complacency over at CBS. The contempt for the blogosphere, where most of the real news is found, is quite telling, isn't it? They're running scared. Karma is a harsh mistress.
ysbaddaden @ 4:
That's up to YOU, pard.
What cracks me up is that they respond to the criticism with...MORE stenographry! Talking points!
What jackasses!
...imagine you got your information from a blog...
:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
I sent her this...
You've been slammed pretty hard by the people on the left that don't like wars. I don't think that they understand the sacrifices you've made to report on Iraq as you saw it.
I think part of the problem with reporting on Iraq is that it looks like a war zone in the videos.
I think there are a couple of things you can do to cast Iraq in a better light.
1. Take children with you. Seeing kids scamper around the marketplace and buying stuff will make a more sympathetic story. Tell part of the story through the eyes of the children that you take with you.
2. Don't travel with the military all of the time. Now that Iraq has become a safe place again, all of the military guard is unnecessary. Getting out and mingling with the people, will help you find stories about the good things that are going on in Iraq.
Best wishes to you and have a great day!
Weaseldog . . nice!
I think I would rather get my information from a BLOG than from the tired, retread, and prepared talking-points parroted by CBS news.
Phil Donahue once said to Billy O on his show “Just because you’re loud doesn’t make you right.” Well, Katie, just because you smile, doesn’t make you a journalist either.
She spent so much time making the news fit entertainment, that she lost it along the way. Its a slippery slope from journalist to fox news assclown, and you seem to be sliding.
Bombsemails away!Dear Betty Chin,
Do you honestly expect the American people and others throughout the world to agree with your assessment of the Couric interview and visit to Baghdad? That it was some how comparable to perhaps other “journalistic” efforts in the region? Please. If we want a snow job we can wait a few months for the real thing!
Dear Jim McGlinchy,
Blogs and the bloggers who run them are much more informed than you and Couric if you say that her “journalistic” efforts in Iraq were something worthy and then attempt to even the score by pointing to other endeavors by you and yours throughout the region to deflect such criticisms. To attack bloggers and blogs is a mistake that you’ve now made. Most bloggers that I know in the political arena are very well informed and do not cow to such tactics. You, sir, do not want to bite off more than you can wash down with a diluted glass of Couric.
This was my email to CBS....
Ma'am,
You are manufacturing consent. You are reciting White House talking
points like you did before the war. You are an enemy of the people of
Iraq and the people of the United States. I am ashamed that you are
speaking like a plutocrat...oh that's right...I forgot..your a member
of the "overclass" now. You are a working part of the military
industrial congressional mediatainment big pharma complex.
Shame!!
This was there response....
Thank you for your email and your interest in our recent coverage from
Iraq and Syria. We invite you to view the following broadcasts in their
entirety to take a fair look at how this challenging story will continue
to be investigated and covered by CBS News.
http://video.cbsnews.com/2007/09/04/video3233699.mp4 Tuesday's
broadcast
http://video.cbsnews.com/2007/09/05/video3237494.mp4 Wednesday
http://video.cbsnews.com/2007/09/07/video3242091.mp4 Thursday
http://video.cbsnews.com/2007/09/07/video3243853.mp4 Friday
- Show quoted text -
…imagine you got your information from a blog somewhere…”
...like maybe somewhere like Baghdad or Tikrit, in Iraq, by an Iraqi, someone on the receiving end of the US Military clusterfuck going on in their own country....that is, when they have electricity.
Oh, but never mind the blogs. When your idea of journalism is sipping coffee in the morning in front of studio cameras and making sure you don't have a bagel poppy stuck in your teeth, then it's easy to deride the people on street-level. It's the 'Leona Helmsley' standard for broadcasting; what the f**k do the little people know?
The MSM is dead to me.
Katie lost me when she invited Rush on to give an editorial.
She sucks - I'm not sure why anyone ever thought she was a journalist.
Katie,
where do you do get your interviews? The heart of the green zone? Officials?
Where do you get your questions? Oh, I get it, it's like Jeopardy. You ask the question that matches the answer they will give you! No need for follow up questions.
Amy Goodman -> the new Walter Cronkite
My email to CBS
Ma'am,
You are manufacturing consent. You are reciting White House talking
points like you did before the war. You are an enemy of the people of
Iraq and the people of the United States. I am ashamed that you are
speaking like a plutocrat...oh that's right...I forgot..your a member
of the "overclass" now. You are a working part of the military
industrial congressional mediatainment big pharma complex.
Shame!!
CBS's response.....
Thank you for your email and your interest in our recent coverage from
Iraq and Syria. We invite you to view the following broadcasts in their
entirety to take a fair look at how this challenging story will continue
to be investigated and covered by CBS News.
http://video.cbsnews.com/2007/09/04/video3233699.mp4 Tuesday's
broadcast
http://video.cbsnews.com/2007/09/05/video3237494.mp4 Wednesday
http://video.cbsnews.com/2007/09/07/video3242091.mp4 Thursday
http://video.cbsnews.com/2007/09/07/video3243853.mp4 Friday
- Show quoted text -
Taarak @ 13:
Katie reminds me of a college cheerleader. I would like to see her in the morning, but not on the evening news.!!
Thank God for the Blogs. And good write up Taarak.
Fascinating use of ellipsis by an "intelligent" person. Is CBS hiring 7th grade mash note writers to help out in communications?!
My goodness. What unprofessional responses those were. What one earth is this country coming to?
hahahaha The blogs are REALLY getting to them. Good!
That is the last step, right? First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they get mad ... then you win?
We're almost there!
She's not a legit journalist. Hell, she couldn't handle being the co-host of The Today Show.
Her multiple stumbles and fumbles were hard to watch. Simply, she is in w-a-a-a-a-y over her ditzy little head.
Does Katie Couric recall her own outrageously rude and insensitive comments to John and Elizabeth Edwards concerning campaigning and Ms. Edwards breast cancer? How Ms Couric questioned Ms. Edwards priorities? I promised never to read another thing about, or by, Ms. Couric after that. I inadvertently let my eyes wander to this article. But, you know, never again. Ms. Couric can dish it out but she sure can't take it. I think that many people watched her appalling behavior to the Edwards and just wrote Ms. Couric off. Maybe she belongs on Fox.
Actually most intelligent people were very impressed by the quality of our reports from Iraq and Syria
katie couric just calle me stupid. woo!
No Couric fan here, believe me, but I have a feeling that the photo you used for this post dated from the time she was mourning her husband?
If so, that's very bad form indeed.
i had to read it on a blog . i could'nt hang with that presstitute for more than a week before i bailed. OLBERMAN FOREVER!
CBS must have TERRIBLE PR people. No wonder her show has such low ratings. They send out offensive notes to viewers. Who's going to watch after a reply like that?
Breaking news: In an effort to lift plumetting ratings, CBS Evening News has replaced Katie Couric with Paris Hilton. In related developments, Britney Spears will next week start anchoring NBC Nightly News, and ABC's World News Tonight is still in negotiations with Lindsey Lohan....
freaktown @ 24:
I really had no idea that she was in touch with most of the intelligent people of the world.
In my best Tom Hanks as a drunk baseball coach voice:
"Are you crying? There's no crying in corporate owned news broadcasting!"
Louisiana 1976 @ 28:
Good choices...dumb and dumber blonds...they are as equal and up to the task as
exisitng news(?) reporters.
This is a good start. Can you guys also go after the rest of the stenographers as well? Add to your list: Matt Lauer, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, Wolf Blitzer...
What else can they do but disparage what they percieve as the enemy.
Their grasp is slipping, they no longer control information.
Viva la communication tubes!
ysbaddaden @ 4:
uh.....NOOOOOOOOO!!!
Here is the response I received:
Thank you for your email and your interest in our recent coverage from Iraq and Syria. We invite you to view the following broadcasts in their entirety to take a fair look at how this challenging story will continue to be investigated and covered by CBS News.
http://video.cbsnews.com/2007/09/04/video3233699.mp4 Tuesday’s broadcast
http://video.cbsnews.com/2007/09/05/video3237494.mp4 Wednesday
http://video.cbsnews.com/2007/09/07/video3242091.mp4 Thursday
http://video.cbsnews.com/2007/09/07/video3243853.mp4 Friday
When was she ever a reporter? She has always been a chattering clog on the Today Show, sending puff balls to celebs and a stooge for the politicos.
Lady take the money and run!
It's kind of flattering, Katie, in a bizarro Bushworld way. We don't hate O'Reilly or Coulter or Hannity too strongly because they're not worth the effort. It's like hating gravity or the tides. But we really, REALLY despise you, because you could have been a good newswoman but decided instead to be a betrayer and appeaser and corporate lackey. Shove your hurt feelings, Katie dear. Be gone, before somebody drops a house on you.
Talcott @ 33:
They have the tubes tied or cut snippity-snip.
katie is no different than the other media whores who populate the air waves. they have sold their journalistic souls to gain entrance to the top rung of media news anchors. i don't know of one who has put his career on the line so that he/she could ask the questions that would put this bush regime into perspective. they've all sold out.
They should just leave the reporting in Iraq to Lara Logan.
She has done some really great work and told it truthfully.
We love you Katie, but you are no Journalist!
nirak @ 41:
The news is considered to be entertainment by the industry.
Actually most intelligent people were very impressed by the quality of our reports from Iraq and Syria
Neocons redefining reality again. Keep at it, dudes!
My e-mail:
Dear Sir,
The Declaration of Independence includes the words "Let facts be submitted to a candid world." Years ago I knew I could get facts from the mouth of Walter Cronkite. Nowadays I get regurgitated Bush talking points from the mouth of the CBS anchor who now occupies his august chair. I even trusted Dan Rather in his search for the truth when he reported from a war zone.
Where is Ms. Couric's independent thinking and journalistic skepticism? How can we survive as a democracy if our sources of "fact" are seriously compromised by the lack of those important traits in the mouth piece, no matter how pretty the face?
Oh, shes a journalist...
Just... a specific KIND of journalist...
Looking at her in that photo... Boo hooing.. I am left with a lyric from the old days running thru my mind, as delievered by a shaggy curly haired Robert Plant.... 'cryin won't help ya, cryin won't do ya no good'....JD
The Katie Couric and Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) Iraq Tour Bus.
Come on everyone, get on board!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9rjSJtttfA
Come on! She was a cheerleader in high school. Go team!!!
“Actually most intelligent people were very impressed by the quality of our reports from Iraq and Syria
Seers! Amazing. Can judge IQ of viewers . . . with envelope to forehead, magic eyeballs in the cable box.
…Apparently you missed most of the interviews that were done over there
No. Only the ones done over here. [Memo to self: send Strunk & White to CBS News Room]
…imagine you got your information from a blog somewhere…”
Yeah. Somewhere over the rainbow, CBS.
I was mainly upset at the way they talked down to me, as though I were a pre-schooler or an idiot. I am an intelligent 51 year old man who was born and raised in Chicago, so I live and breathe politics. If this is the way CBS treats all people who disagree with their broadcasts then perhaps they had better close their comments section and just become a dictatorial network, sort of like their hero, GWB.
Keep denegrating the Internet and its denizens, CBS. That's the sure way to dig your own grave.
doggone @ 43:
Essentialy CBS is saying, I think were really good, if we may say so ourselves. What do these hubris infected morons care for public opinion anyway?
Dr. Acula @ 9:
Actually, I thought that was pud.
She'd be fine in the sack, as long as you give her this first:
[deleted---over the top, ysbaddaden]
raker @ 37:
How dare you discount our little Katie. She is an excellent stenographer and a good little soldier!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_RZTusUzM8
"Actually"
(what follows is actual, which is different than usual, say the reporting from Iraq)
"most intelligent people were very impressed"
The majority who were not "very impressed" were not intelligent. I see.
Its not like Katie is much worse than the rest of the media though...
Will CBS ever replace Katie Couric with Lara Logan? I can see the negotiations now.
http://cbruen.com/blog/cats_fighting_102006.jpg
Katie's official response:
http://reporter.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/couri...
Taarak @ 13:
She's not a journalist, she's a television news personality. Big difference. Katie Couric and hard news go together like oil and water.
Miss Katie has had a reputation for being this bitchy for years!! You should hear the stories from the crew on the Today Show.
She's a little prima donna playing at being a journalist.
RG
boo-fucking-hoo!
hey BaScOmBe....howzit goin.....I wrote her and expained to her that I actually defended her on a liberal blog......and how disappointed I was in her for not asking any hard questions.....No reply
You were Right....I was wrong..........oh well..live and learn
God, I'm just starting to hate those evil bloggers.
Look, it's tough being a multimillionaire coddled diva like Katie?
After all, she has to be escorted around the green zone by the Military, while she gushes like a 14 year old school girl about how great they are?
It's not easy being "Katie".
This is what happens when newsreaders pretend they're journalists.
CBS is at fault here. Refusing to cry 'uncle' over Couric's dismal performance and ratings. She's morning material -- no gravitas for evening news. They should have heaved-hoed her perky ass outta there about 6 months ago.
Hey everyone, look at meeeeee. I can read from a teleprompter.
Katie did such an outstanding job that she tied her all-time low in viewers. Don't worry, Katie, Meredith is looking for an out at Today.
wow
ysbaddaden @ 4:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1199/771891633_f884afae79.jpg?v=0
I was not a fan of KateC before 9/11 but the day of, sealed it for me.
As I learnt long ago, sometimes you are doing the person a favour when you point out they are in the wrong profession, even if they cry.
Bloggers = Hippies w/Keyboards?
When you get a personal visit and have your signature on a cast of Colbert along with all the other rightwingers, then maybe you are a stenographer for GWBush?
What do you think Katie?
lol, what a snot.
freaktown @ 27:
Well, first you would have to know who are the "intelligent" people.
Then you can judge, if you are stupid.
[...] A C&L commenter received this response from CBS: “Sorry you didn’t get a chance to see much of the reporting from [...]
The Truth Hurts @ 25:
I'm telling you guys, she's the JLo of TV Journalism.
You think you would know by now that you are not the customer: you are the product.
CBS is not the only testy bunch. I just got an form e-mail response from PBS saying my complaint about comments made by David Brooks was due to an organized effort on the Blogs-the e-mail mentioned DailyKos as the organizer.
Think the message was that I am part of some lunatic fringe to be discounted.
Maybe it is time we simply informed them we are tuning out-permanently.
I think that both "responses" detail the exact problem CBS has with it's reporting. They ASSUME the reason for the dissatisfaction is due to secondhand information (to wit: Blogs). Did they ASK if you had seen the information first hand? No, they implied that your information came second hand from those scurrilous bloggers. Without so much as a single probing question they wrote the story in response to your letter:
Slack Jawed Net Junky Complains to CBS About Reporting He Never Saw on Orders of MoveOn.org
Congrats CBS, I'm sure a Polk is on it's way as I type this!
el toaster @ 28:
Actually, I believe that photo was from her final day at The Today Show.
Colbert laid it all out for us at that WH correspondents dinner. There are no journalists today in the MSM. Even Wolf Blitzer admitted as much to M. Moore when he said point blank "Yes, this is a business."
They don't report news. They're filler for the advertisements. If anything, its a measure of how powerful web logs have become.
My email to the two CBS senior producers:
I would like to call to your attention a response from your staff to a
viewer who was critical of Katie Couric's "journalism" with her
"report" from Iraq. Here is what was sent:
"Actually most intelligent people were very impressed by the quality
of our reports from Iraq and Syria …Apparently you missed most of the
interviews that were done over there…imagine you got your information
from a blog somewhere…"
Is this the response usually given to constructive criticism at CBS
news? And you guys wonder why millions of people have turned to blogs
to get their news. I won't even go into the puff piece, factless
checking, White House/Petraeus megaphone of a report that Katie Couric
did from Iraq. That report speaks for itself and anyone with half a
brain can see the propaganda oozing from it. Journalistic integrity
has gone down the drain in this country. The Katie Couric puff piece
and responses like the one above from your staff say everything we
need to know about the media in this country. Again... you guys
wonder why people like me have migrated to blogs to get our news.
With responses like these from your staff can you blame us?
Sincerely,
Ross
P.S. And yes, I did get my "information from a blog somewhere"... and
I'm much more informed than the average CBS viewer as a result of it.
Couric isn't denigrating blogs, or readers of blogs. She's gloating over the MSM's suppression of information, noting in effect that substantive criticism can only come from the blogosphere and crowing over her successful marginalization of true journalism. Katie is the fresh new face of the same old corporate censorship, and is eager to rub it in.
I'm feeling a bit slighted. Couric's producers didn't reply to me when I sent them this message the day before yesterday:
Does Katie Couric have to get tequila drunk before letting the Bush administration gets its hand quite that far up her rear? Personally, I'd need to be at least a little liquored up before handing over my integrity with an obsequious giggle.
When the history of this era is written -- assuming it ever is written -- the villain will not be the criminal Bush junta. They are pretty much what you would expect a republican administration to be - sold out to the interests of business at the expense of everything and everybody else. Despicable? Of course! But in the case of the Bush junta, America got pretty much what it deserved and clearly should have expected.
The villain of this era will be the sold-out American media that had a duty to ask hard questions on behalf of the people. The media has a duty to critically examine the horse-shit du jour offered by the Bush junta. Katie Couric failed utterly in that duty during her recent visit to Iraq.
There's no shame in being a sold-out stenographer for a corrupt administration. The shame is in being that while calling yourself, and asking my countrymen to consider you a "journalist". My hope for my country rests in the knowledge that we are at least sometimes represented by better, braver, and nobler journalists than Katie Couric -- many of whom have already died trying to tell the true story of post-invasion life in Iraq.
Not to worry though ... for the loss of every viewer like me, Couric's shameful conduct has probably won you two or three of the slack-jawed, mouth-breathing stooges who watch Fox News. Appealing to that demographic is apparently more important that telling the truth.
No use hearing from me. I quit watching the evening "news" ages ago and the morning network shows shortly after 9/11. There's only so much bias and out-right lying a person can stomach.
Try going internet only. I recommend it.
smchris @ 87:
Agreed. Another benefit is getting to see responses from readers and that has also helped shape my thinking in many cases. Discussion is a much more democratic and productive way to learn about issues rather than being a lemming running toward the edge of a cliff.
Katie is an entertainer, not a journalist.
My God Katie Couric sucks. What a vapid bitch. What happened to probing, hard-bitten newspaper men like Cronkite, Rather and Brokaw? Now we get "are people who say Britney was fat at the VMAs a bunch of meanies" and "hey let's give this Iraq thing another shot. Go team!"
evil incarnate @ 2:
The Global Internet Community (We The People--remember us?) is metamorphosing our Body Politic faster than you Corporatist-driven propagandists can keep up. You cannot stop us. Increasing numbers of us are getting clear about corporatism and its myriad shills, e.g. Fox, ABC, CBS, et. al. In 1789, the French Imperialists had to learn their lessons the hard way. Perhaps the Corporatists are doomed to make the same mistake.
Oh, by the way, numerous informed and erudite individuals use blogs to get their messages out to a wide audience. Implying that the Internet Community is too stupid to recognize the truth is both shortsighted and wrong.
One Year Wonder @ 83:
…and don’t forget Richard Saunders! There was a truly great journalist. He wrote of informing and educating the public, about political unrest, philosophical endeavors, involvement in protest, and theories of government. He was pretty radical, but had some great ideas. He would have made a GREAT BLOGGER too!
Unfortunately, he published his Blog (he called it an almanac) almost 250 years ago in Philadelphia. He called his BLOG Poor Richard’s Almanac. His real name was Benjamin Franklin.
Does anyone actually believe the Chimperor would have granted Katie an interview if she were going to ask the tough questions? No doubt there were terms and conditions laid down before hand on what could and what could not be asked if she was to get the interview with Boy King. King George doesn't grant interviews for his lowly subjects unless he can frame the questions.
American democracy and freedom of the press in the GOP era.
i seriously wonder how they responded to all the rightwing criticism from before her report began.
i know there was a concerted effort between FOX & the NY POST to discredit her reports...("shes just doing it for ratings!")
i'm *sure* CBS addresssed their criticism the same way.
I am so fucking tired of people beating up on Katie Couric. Is she the ONLY network news anchor on television? Where is the criticism of Brian Williams on NBC, or whoever the fuck is on ABC? Oh, yeah ... they dumped their woman anchor because she had the nerve to get pregnant. The overkill on Katie smells of sexism.
BAC
...& dont forget the time Katie jumped all over Howard Dean, accusing him "democrats took money from Abramoff too!!!" (wow, another verbatim talking point!)
then she didnt even have the decency to issue the correction herself; that matt guy did it.
ysbaddaden @ 4:
No, just another overpaid bush ho.
the thing is, Couric gets beat up by the right & by the left...but its only the right's criticisms that she takes seriously.
If CBS has to place blame with the blogs for the public's perception of Katie's ass-kissing performance re: her reporting from Iraq, then they aren't worth the airwaves they broadcast on.
Many of you probably recall Katie's Today Show interview of Howard Dean right after the Abramoff scandal broke. She got into a brief argument with Howard over whether or not Dems took money directly from Jack. Dean didn't give up, and Katie finally said, "well, this is something we'll have to check on at a later time" and then ended the interview.
Several days later, Matt...not Katie...made a statement on the air that "technically, Dean was right." If Katie had any credibility (hell...that goes for all the "reporters" on the Today Show) she would have checked into the details BEFORE the Dean interview.
grover nerdquist @ 96:
Ahhhh...looks like you beat me to it. Didn't see your post before I submitted mine.
BAC @ 95:
Show us where Williams or Gibson (ABC) have shown a severe case of a lack of journalistic integrity like Katie did with Howard Dean (see my post above) and we may consider it. We want quotes and their sources.
So she admits on air, broadcasting to the world, that she is reporting on stuff that the U.S. military specifically wants her to see in order to put the Iraq "war" in a good light, and we are supposed to let her slide because she's a woman? Oh, Boo Hoo, and Bull Shit.
The way people say "blogs" as if it's commonly understood that they're disreputable is so odd. Blogs are just a medium of spreading information, much like TV, books, newspapers, magazines, etc. I wonder if when the first magazines came out, they were similiarly derided: "Oh, you didn't get that info from a magazine, did you?! Hrumph!" with no distinction between serious research periodicals and gossip rags. Same thing with blogs.
deang @ 102:
Right on. I have to chuckle every time I see someone calling a progressive or lefty blog a "hate site," especially if that person otherwise posts as often as the regulars. If you want a genuine hate site, just check out RedState.org (if you can stand it). I recall a time that the "owner" of the site encouraged kidnappers to continue holding their captives because RedState didn't agree with their politics.
how is this any different from what every political blog (including this one) already does? Ignoring legit criticism from people simply because they have one or two beliefs that differ slightly from the moderators?
deang @ 102:
When people refer to blogs in such a sense, chances are they are refering to political blogs. And, political blogs are really only for those leaning towards extremeism on either side, so it's very easy to mistrust them, even if they are right a majority of the time.
I mean, no one who is merely satisfyed, or apathetic, or neutral isn't gonna take the time and energy to make a blog to state as such. Political blogs are simply a medium that has been utilized almost exclusively by the far leaning people in this country.
I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it just seems to be how it is. And certainly you can understand people being a bit weary of that.
Cythraul @ 48:
Is that like a concern troll?
OH DEAR GOD! SHE'S USING THE O'REILLY DEFENSE!
So blogs are OK when they are regurgitating talking points, but not when they are criticizing the news? Katie should go back to reporting about madrases with her pompoms.
CHuckle. It seems that the media are getting their training from Frank Luntz.
When a Right Winger hears some unpleasant bit of reality on the evening news or in their newspaper, they scurry under their "liberal media" umbrella so as to avoid a downpour of cognitive dissonance.
And, now, we see the media reprising the role. When the media hears criticism of their "reporting" and "journalism", they similarly discount the message by arbitrarily demonizing the source. Those nasty "bloggers"!
As a senior citizen...the only people who look at network news..I have never seen Katie on TV. I am a news junkie. I do look at Keith Olberman because he reports facts....is nice ..civil discourse and throws papers. Nice touch.
the point is..it is only criticism from the left that Couric doesnt like...she eagerly rushes to address criticism from the right.
Couric is the POSTERCHILD for the rights technique of WORKING THE REFS.
Fakie Couric in Iraq was hilarious!! I believe she didn't even go outside the green zone. I mean, she interviewed more of her colleagues inside her CBS bunker than she interviewed Iraqi's!! Who is this war about, the reporters?! Oh no, now she's asking president Bush. Great news Katie, although you haven't said a thing I hadn't heard before. Stay at home for crying out loud, cuz you might as well have.
Fuck her. If she doesn't like criticism, she should start doing journalism instead of cheerleading propaganda for a criminal regime. As it is, she should consider herself lucky that people don't spit in her face when they see her on the streets.
Most "intelligent" people don't get REAL news from one source that doesn't ask any real questions or provide any real information. EG: The current crop of crap farmers they call "news" programs on television today.
Most "intelligent" people know that if you want REAL information you have to dig for it and that includes looking at blogs.
It doesn't surprise me that couric is just a hack in a dress. For the love of mike she went from being a morning show bit of fluff to being an "anchor". Well it must be the good ship lollypop because an 'anchor' that full of empty air is just going to float away.
She's just pissed she doesn't get to cook on the air any more. I guess after that photoshop fiasco with her promo pics they decided to keep her out of the kitchen for a while.
PS katie: you're as relevant as bratteny spears. Go away.
I used to work in Peter Jennings' L.A. news desk back in 2001, and viewer phone calls were completely ignored and regularly put on speaker phone and laughed at by anyone within proximity. Never in my time there did we ever take notes on a phone call or push a viewer concern up the chain-of-command. NEVER.
I attribute this lack of network accountability to the fact that the major networks own their respective airwaves (for all practical purposes) and can do whatever they want with them. I'd like to see the FCC start to really question the blanket licenses they give to the major tv networks. If a broadcast license was at stake, perhaps we would see some accountability.
Your error lies in mistaking viewers as the network's customers. Their customers are the companies buying commercial time.
mroome @ 117:
this is absolutley true.
likewise, politicians crhetoric is not aimed at voters, but rather towards their corporate benefactors.
...& as you'll see on thinkprogress.org, she's earned her reward.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/13/katie-couric-is-the-right-wings-new-...
as long as she kisses rightwing ass, she will never be fired.
no matter how low her ratings go.
& she knows it.
grover nerdquist @ 119:
Butt does Katie french-kiss? America want's to know!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X96SpVapfaU
More my kind'o Kate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKh-HhzMXGE
What have Williams or Gibson done to education people about why we should end this war? NO, you don't need to "let her slide" because she's a woman, but it would be nice if someone called the fucking men to task once in awhile. The guys were just as culpable in the lead up to this war -- yet no one seems willing to call them out. THAT's the real Bull Shit.
BAC
Brian Williams interview with General Petraeus
Brian Williams opening question: "I was curious to see the other day you arrive back in this country from Iraq and promptly see yourself portrayed as General Betray Us in a full page newspaper ad. Does that kind of thing get to you?"
Brian Williams lobs another softball question to the General: "It must strike you on the job in Iraq that you are doing course corrections constantly for policies that could have been different. Going in bigger. Not letting the army go away. What is the most pressing of those in your mind. What would you like to go back and fix?"
The interview is 27 minutes of Petraeus propaganda. Where is the outrage? Oh, I forgot ... the person asking the questions has a penis.
BAC
BAC @ 122:
I asked for similarities to what Katie did in her interview of Howard Dean. The examples that you posted re: Williams lobbing softball questions, are not the same as what Katie did.
If Williams or Gibson would have said on the air that they are only reporting what the Bush administration or the military want them to report, then I'm sure they would be scrutinized. Besides, Gibson and Williams and Couric are on the air to report the news that is given to them, whether or not you like the news that is delivered, it's slant on the war (pro or con), or the format. It is not their job to spend 4 minutes in their broadcast to air their personal views on the war and convince America to agree with them.
I'll take my news from a blog over Couric any day of the week. Hey wait I already do 24/7 bye bye stanky msm I've gone over to the blogs for real news!
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