I'm guessing Katie Couric just sped up her CBS News walking papers

[RiverStone]

I rarely watch the MSM (news) and my experience of Katie is less than positive. She has always struck me as a little disingenuous and simply too damn "nice" to ask the hard questions. Though based on what she said yesterday at the National Press Club; my impression of her has kicked up a notch.

At least she was willing to speak the truth as she sees it, albeit her loyalties to her employer are still in evidence with her "if required on TV" comment. Required by who? Just speak the damn truth girl!

CBS News has consistently been placing last of the big 3 for a long time. I'm guessing Katie's candor last night may speed up her departure; but at least from this infrequent viewer, she gained a little more of my respect for her honesty.


* * * *

<snip>

“Everyone in this room would agree that people in this country were misled in terms of the rationale of this war,” said Couric, adding that it is “pretty much accepted” that the war in Iraq was a mistake.

“I’ve never understood why invading Iraq was so high on the administration’s agenda when terrorism was going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that Iraq had no true connection with al Qaeda.”

Further, Couric said the Bush administration botched the war effort, calling it “accepted truths” that it erred by“disbanding the Iraq military, and leaving 100,000 Sunni men feeling marginalized and angry...and whether there were enough boots on the ground, the feeling that we’d be welcomed as liberators and didn’t need to focus as much on security.” She added “I’d feel totally comfortable saying any of that at some point, if required, on television.”

The former “Today” show anchor traced her discomfort with the administration’s march to war back to the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

http://www.examiner.com/blogs/Yeas_and_Nays/2007/9/26/Couric-weighs-in-on-Iraq-Rather

[Auggie]

1. It's easy for all of them to say that now

[Tempest]

4. Hindsight is 20/20

The praise should be given to those who recognized the truth before the U.S. went to war.

[displacedtexan]

2. Sounds like she's got a bad case of Olbermann Envy.

[Cha]

12. Sounds like you

pegged her. That's not what she's been projecting these last years..180 degrees.

[CatWoman]

3. fuck her

Couric Slams Rather: "Sloppy Work Is Sloppy Work"

http://www.examiner.com/blogs/Yeas_and_Nays/2007/9/26/Couric-weighs-in-on-Iraq-Rather

[Tempest]

6. She's got one hell of a nerve

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18046837/site/newsweek/

CBS certainly got something different than it bargained for when it stole America’s Sweetheart from the “Today” show last year. Not only has Couric failed to draw her loyal fans to her new network: “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” remains a distant third behind NBC and ABC. Now, Couric is embroiled in an embarrassing flap with The Wall Street Journal over plagiarism, the ultimate journalistic sin.

[glarius]

15. Neither Couric nor any of her fellow journalists had the guts to point out the

fact that even without the disputed papers, there was enough evidence from the living witnesses Rather had in his report, to prove the truth of the accusations.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. "her discomfort with the administration’s marchto war back to the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks"

Except for that navy seals rocking part. That was like way cool.

[glarius]

7. CBS wanted a popular woman anchor and picked Couric .....the problem is

they picked someone who was popular for her bubbly and giggly personality on the Today Show....."bubbly and giggly" doesn't work as a serious news anchor and when she was forced to dampen these qualities, she was just another non-outstanding news anchor!

[Cleita]

10. Most importantly, she's a personality, not a journalist.

They already had a woman who could have filled those shoes, Christianne Amanpour. Christianne is a real journalist and an attractive woman, as well. But they didn't want anyone who would actually do real hard news, both international and national and who was good at it. Oh, and Christianne leans left as well. That was a no, no.

[glarius]

11. I agree/nt

[SidDithers]

8. "Navy Seals RAWK!!"...nt

Sid

[SoCalDem]

9. Naw.. It was just the "two-fer" policy in action

rev up the war.. beat the drum.. salute the flag, and go along with all the "hired ex-general/advisers"..

and THEN


when the whole sham is exposed, wring your hands, beat your breasts and claim to have been
a. duped by clever word-smiths
b. tricked into going along for fear of your job

news outlets want it both ways.. they love the glitz & glam of a 'real war".. and when the war goes sour, they can then reclaim the high ground and have a whole new story..

the sad thing is that real people have died in the meantime..real wealth squandered, real hatreds set loose, and countries destroyed..

but hey.. if an anchor/reporter gets a book deal out of it..it's all been worth it...right??

[misanthrope]

13. I wholeheartedly agree with her assessment of Rather...

...and that's why I have no sympathy for him. I still suspect that memo was the product of a GOP "dirty trick" and Dan fell for it hook, line and sinker because his ego long ago overrode his journalistic ethics and judgement.

[hfojvt]

14. gene lyons slams her pretty good

"Comes September, the long-awaited

Month of Decision on the Iraq

war, and all parties with a career stake in the outcome have swung into action. Pretty, perky Katie Couric took her “CBS Evening News” program to Iraq, and who turned up ? Why President Bush ! What a coincidence that America’s least popular president and lowest-rated TV news anchor showed up simultaneously at a U. S. air base in convenient Anbar province. Next Bush jetted off to Sydney, bragging that the U. S. is “kicking ass” before gravely thanking Australia’s prime minister for visiting “Austrian” troops in Mesopotamia. Pure showbiz magic ! Walking in Baghdad with Gen. David Petraeus, Couric displayed the journalistic rigor of a cheerleader interviewing the football captain. She all but asked to feel his muscles. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that the Dora Market, where Petraeus escorts visiting celebrities on flak-jacketed tours before whisking them off to dine on lobster tortellini and steak at the U. S. Embassy, is basically a U. S.-financed movie set patrolled by heavily armored Humvees and kept in business by $ 2, 500 cash grants to shopkeepers.

Serving a surf- ’n’ -turf special in the Iraqi desert may eventually symbolize the entire doomed enterprise. "

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/201219/

"the journalistic rigor of a cheerleader interviewing the football captain."