…….is that, for good or for ill, she’s taken the first hour of “The Today Show” to the evening with her! LOL!

(Well, CBS and She With The Great Legs wanted to change the game. So, okay……. Maybe she’s actually following those suggestions folks made earlier this year.  I have a big crush on Katie, so I’ll just ignore the spinning Murrow bones many media critics have been talking about. [You mean they HAVEN’T been spinning since Nancy Kerrigan and O.J.? :)] Somewhere in Heaven, I believe that Peter is doing a REAL newscast, and I wish I could see it. )

I began watching “Today” a decade or so ago because I very much liked the “hard news” first 20 minutes, where she had no problem opening a polite-but-firm can or two of whup-ass on an interviewee. So this transition will eventually work out for everyone who cares about this kind of thing. 

Some journalists of color have criticized the lack of racial diversity in the new newscasts’ on-air correspondents over the last two days, but I did like the Latina she used in last night’s “Free Speech” segment.

*******

And here’s a Post-Script, from “Today’s WORD On Journalism”:

TODAY’S WORD ON JOURNALISM–Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006

More on Katie Couric:
“I’m always happy when a woman succeeds. Even if
you think anchoring is stupid, which it is, and
the evening news a pile of propagandistic
claptrap, which it mostly is, it’s good to see
another bastion of male supremacy fall by the
wayside. Anything that gets women thinking they
can do anything is good! And there is the simple
issue of fairness–of rewarding women for their
work on equal terms with men. It’s another crack
in the glass ceiling and every woman who’s come
up against that should be glad. If the news is a
bit fluffier under Katie C, you can bet that’s
because CBS has done market research showing that
will up their ratings. Unfortunately, most people
are very interested in Tom Cruise and Katie
Holmes’ baby.”
   –Katha Pollitt, writer, the morning after
Couric’s debut as CBS Evening News anchor, 9/6/06.

* * * * *
TODAY’S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service”
sent to the 1,500 or so misguided volunteer
subscribers around the planet. If you have
recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and
don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe.” Or if
you want to afflict someone else, send me the
email address and watch the fun begin.
(Disclaimer: While I just quote ’em, I don’t
necessarily endorse ’em. All, in theory, contain
at least a kernel of insight.)

Ted Pease, WORDmeister & Professor of Interesting Stuff
Utah State University, Logan, Utah
http://www.usu.edu/journalism/faculty/pease/
To receive Today’s Word on Journalism, send “subscribe” to
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See the WORD online at the Hard News Café: http://www.hardnewscafe.usu.edu