Media: Why Katie Couric crashed and burned

I suppose we can now stop calling her America’s sweetheart, said Michael Ventre in MSNBC.com. Two years ago, “amid trumpets, bunting, and confetti,” CBS installed Katie Couric as anchor of its signature newscast, luring her from NBC’s Today show with a $75 million, five-year contract. Couric, the first woman to anchor any of the Big Three networks’ evening news broadcasts on her own, was supposed to breathe new life into CBS’s third-place show. But all did not go according to the script. Under Couric, CBS Evening News’ ratings actually fell, and last week, reports indicated the network plans to move Couric out well before her contract expires in 2011.

Everyone already has a theory about what went wrong, said Myrna Blyth in National Review Online. Media analysts say CBS failed to make the best use of Couric’s talents. Feminists blame sexism, saying Couric was criticized one day for looking too sexy and the next for being too aggressive. Indeed, many people are arguing that Couric’s failure—like the stalled presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton—proves that “Americans simply dislike women in powerful roles.” But the truth may be more prosaic: It turns out that Couric “is a lousy anchor.” Once CBS curbed her cute self-indulgences, Katie became obviously miserable. On a typical night, she seems “bored and brittle, racing through the news with a staccato delivery, almost as if she can’t wait to get out of the place.”

Who can blame her? said Leslie Bennetts in the New York Post. The aging white men who run CBS never appreciated Couric’s aggressive interviewing style or presented her as an accomplished journalist. For the first few months, they had the camera focus on Couric’s crossed legs, while pushing her to be cute and chirpy. Then she became too serious. Couric made her own mistakes in adjusting to the new role, and in high-profile jobs, “women have to be perfect.” So now she’s deemed a failure. Actually, it was not Couric’s performance that was the main problem, said James Poniewozik in Time.com. It was “her salary.” In today’s media environment, nobody can justify $15 million a year to anchor the network news. Katie would be worth that much only if she could single-handedly reverse the newscasts’ relentless slide. But today, only a small percentage of Americans—most of them over 50—“have the time or inclination to watch a half-hour TV newscast at 6:30 in the evening; those who do will ultimately die.” No star or futuristic set or new format will fix that.

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