June 02, 2006
Katie Couric Gets Serious
So, Katie Couric wants to end what she calls pretentiousness in the evening news?
LAS VEGAS (Hollywood Reporter) - Katie Couric hopes to bring a ``humanistic, more accessible'' approach to her job when she takes over as anchor and managing editor at ``CBS Evening News'' in September, she said Thursday.
Addressing the annual convention of CBS affiliates, Couric predicted that the ``pretentious era'' of the evening-news anchor is going to be a thing of the past.
``The audience is more sophisticated than we give them credit for -- they don't want a mechanical Ted Baxter,'' said Couric, whose last day as co-anchor of NBC's ``Today'' was Wednesday. ``I'm a serious, caring, compassionate person. I hope that comes out. ... People want a multidimensional (news anchor) and not someone they can put in a box.''
The problem many viewers have come to have with not just the evening news, but any news that comes from the major new outlets, is that newsies like Couric like to put their "serious, caring, compassionate" selves smack dab in the middle of a story. We want someone who will deliver the news and let us decide what we think of the story based on its own merits...not the merits of the "multidimensional" anchor behind the desk.
And how accessible can Couric be as she sits behind the anchor desk in a television studio with her smart glasses on? Come on. Give us some of that credit you mentioned!
The evening news on the traditional networks will continue to take a pounding from cable news and the Internet. I doubt very much that Katie Couric behind the anchor desk at CBS will change that trend.
Frankly, I'd take Ted Baxter over Katie any day. At least he was honest about his pomposity.
Taking the news seriously
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