There’s been a barrage of publicity lately over whether Katie Couric will step down (or be released) from her CBS Evening News anchor duties. Given the extent of the coverage, one could probably assume that will happen. So was taking the job, then, a mistake?
I remember when Katie took the main anchor job at CBS. I asked a close friend of hers why she did it. In my mind, it simply didn’t make sense. I’m not saying leaving The Today Show was a mistake. Katie has tackled that mountain and it’s understandable that she wanted to flex other muscles. Also, boredom and perhaps early morning fatigue seemed to be showing a bit on-air. But taking a job on the staid and boring evening news at a time when audiences were flocking in droves to the internet and elsewhere?
Katie’s real value in being a successful, popular journalist lies in her personality, charm, and humor. She makes you feel like you’re her friend and she makes you laugh in good times and bad with her down to earth, spontaneous comments. Even on paper. In a recent article published in Newsweek magazine, she reflects on the ten-year anniversary of her husband’s death. In the course of a single page, she made me laugh and cry. I ached for her loss—the losses of several friends who have lost husbands in mid-life. That’s why women like, respond to, and watch Katie. How many of those attributes, I wondered, would come into play on an evening newscast—no matter how much you revamped the style and delivery of the thirty-minute show?
In explaining Katie’s decision, her friend told me it was a question of ego—and of wanting to make and leave a mark. Katie wanted to be the first solo news anchor of an evening newscast at one of the main networks. Katie, in short, wanted to make history (if you sense a hint of mockery here, let’s be clear: there’s none. Men have these aspirations all the time. Why is it not ok for a woman to have similar desires? It certainly is ok in my opinion).
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