Thursday, April 06, 2006
Dumb Couric responses: sexism?
On and off for the past few years, ABC's Charlie Gibson has been doing Good Morning America and World News Tonight... both in the same day.
Tom Brokaw went from being a Today host to the anchor chair.
Yet when it's Katie Couric doing it, we're treated to brilliant comments like this, even from otherwise intelligent, thoughtful people like Jeff Jarvis:
Fact is, the morning shows require an incredibly broad range of both knowledge and ability. You have to be able to make fluffy interviews interesting, and hard news legitimate. Not to mention the fact that prior to her Today stint, Couric was a journalist through-and-through, including a stint covering the Pentagon.
Anybody think she was a "lightweight" when she was anchoring the 9/11 coverage? Yeah, seems the critics have forgotten how amazing she was that day.
[In fairness to Jarvis, by the way, I think that after noting the comments he got in Couric's defense, he realized his rant was a little premature and not so well-thought-out.]
So if you want to beat the sad, tired liberal bias drum or some other such complaint, go ahead and do that. But please don't say she can't do the job. Given the obvious evidence to the contrary, and her male counterparts who have followed the exact same path, it's hard not to assume it's a sexist thing.
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Tom Brokaw went from being a Today host to the anchor chair.
Yet when it's Katie Couric doing it, we're treated to brilliant comments like this, even from otherwise intelligent, thoughtful people like Jeff Jarvis:
It’s about the name. It’s about celebrity. This is halfway to hiring George Clooney to read the news (’I may not be a journalist, but I played one in a theater near you’).Wow. Where to start with that level of dumbness?
Fact is, the morning shows require an incredibly broad range of both knowledge and ability. You have to be able to make fluffy interviews interesting, and hard news legitimate. Not to mention the fact that prior to her Today stint, Couric was a journalist through-and-through, including a stint covering the Pentagon.
Anybody think she was a "lightweight" when she was anchoring the 9/11 coverage? Yeah, seems the critics have forgotten how amazing she was that day.
[In fairness to Jarvis, by the way, I think that after noting the comments he got in Couric's defense, he realized his rant was a little premature and not so well-thought-out.]
So if you want to beat the sad, tired liberal bias drum or some other such complaint, go ahead and do that. But please don't say she can't do the job. Given the obvious evidence to the contrary, and her male counterparts who have followed the exact same path, it's hard not to assume it's a sexist thing.
0 comments. Leave one!
