Couric: ‘Not My Job’ To Critically Report On Iraq, ‘Unless Something Is Really Egregious’

[kpete]

Couric: ‘Not My Job’ To Critically Report On Iraq, ‘Unless Something Is Really Egregious’

Recently, CBS anchor Katie Couric traveled to the Middle East for a “heavily promoted week in the war zone,” reporting the situation on the ground from Iraq. Her reporting was superficial and uncritical, airing several “puff pieces” mouthing Bush administration talking points.

This week, Couric spoke at the National Press Club with host Marvin Kalb to discuss “Democracy and the Press.” Couric explained that her goal in Iraq was to appear neutral and avoid “a Walter Cronkite moment,” as she put it:

Is it my job to go over and say this war is terrible and withdrawal is necessary? I don’t necessarily think that is the case. … I don’t necessarily feel that (I should pass judgment) unless there is a clear cut factual element to it. … I have never really saw it as my role, unless something is really egregious and without question wrong.

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[LisaM]

1. She is afraid of a Walter Cronkite moment?

Well, that pretty much sums up the state of network news.

[IDemo]

56. "And that's the way it may or may not be, but who am I to decide?"

[LSK]

2. see the Dan Rather lawsuit

She likes her job.

[Sparkly]

3. Wow.

:wow:

[robinlynne]

4. There is no danger whatsoever of her having a walter cronkite moment....

[burythehatchet]

5. Wrong Katie, that's what the PR dept does. Idiot.

[Eurobabe]

6. She was never a journalist or a reporter. She's a corporate hack

Katie you disgust me. :puke:

[tridim]

38. She's a BFEE whore. No less. n/t

[Eurobabe]

47. yeah, her sister Emily, a VA Dem is rolling in her grave n/t

[sinkingfeeling]

7. "Egregious" must be Katie's favorite word. She used it while critizing Dan Rather yesterday too.

[sandnsea]

8. Better to have a Joseph Goebbels moment

cuz that's what you did Katie dear.

[Done]

9. "unless something is really egregious and without question wrong"

What do you call invading another country and KILLING a million people?

:argh:

[BlooInBloo]

10. Link?

[Fridays Child]

31. Here's one.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/28/couric-on-iraq/

[BlooInBloo]

34. Thanks!

[Warpy]

11. Losing the war isn't egregious?

The presence of a mercenary army with no oversight and no governing laws isn't egregious?

The butchery of Iraq to fatten a few corporations isn't egregious?

American kids coming home daily in pieces or in boxes isn't egregious?

Katie fucking Couric trying to pass herself off as a newscaster is egregious!

[closeupready]

12. Pretty disgusting that she thinks she is even in the same league as Cronkite.

n/t

[Fridays Child]

13. I have never really SAW it?

She's dangerous AND stupid.

[Fresh_Start]

14. Couric, I'm not interested in the news.

and that concept of 'investigative reporting' its so 1970s......

[The Wielding Truth]

24. Gees, CBS News sure has fallen.

[Fresh_Start]

32. Made up Couric quotes -

I can tell if its newsworthy by measuring it on the egregious scale. If its not in the red, people don't need to know about it.

I like my news obvious. If you have to work to find it...its not newsworthy.

My ideal of the role of news reporting under democracy is, if its not egregious the citizens don't need to know.

As an newsperson and American citizen, I believe that an ignorant citizenry if the best choice for democracy in the USA.

[The Wielding Truth]

42. She is not even in the same league as Cronkite, or even Scieffer.

[Yavin4]

15. And Nothing Has Ever Been "Egregious" About Iraq

Couric: "I don’t necessarily feel that (I should pass judgment) unless there is a clear cut factual element to it. … I have never really saw it as my role, unless something is really egregious and without question wrong."


And nothing has ever been wrong about Iraq ever. It's been a smooth operation from day one.


:sarcasm:

[malaise]

16. The entire fuggign invasion and occupation are

really egregious and without question wrong. Fuck off Katie.

[scorpiogirl]

17. WTF is your job then?

Oh, wait, I know! It's making money for corporate media. You think that MIGHT be why she's not questioning shit? What a fucking chickenshit!

[Egnever]

26. Damn you stole my header!

So by her definition she is not a journalist only a mouthpiece. I guess she should get kudos for at least letting everyone know she is worthless. If they didn't already.

[scorpiogirl]

49. Sorry about that! :-)

I wonder how that bit of info will affect her ratings? She is an idiot!

[coalition_unwilling]

41. I share your outrage but must note that corporate media exist

only to make money for shareholders. In that sense, corporate news exists only to attract viewers in order to sell ads and not to serve any public interest (despite what they may tell themselves or us). Depending on corporate media for anything other than "fill" before the next commercial break is a fool's errand, I would wager.

If you have access to a local Pacifica radio station, I suggest you avail yourself of it. Our local Pacifica station is KPFK (90.7 FM). I alternate between KPFK and Air America radio (Randi Rhodes and Rachel Maddow mainly) now and no longer watch network TV news nor read the LA Times.

[scorpiogirl]

55. I am more than aware of that. I was being tongue-in-cheek.

I watch very little tv these days and am sick to death of commercials or whoever trying to get me to consume something. I never, ever watch local news anymore. These people have zero credibility. I always wonder how putting on a suit and coiffing one's hair makes one respectable and credible, especially after hearing the shit they spew. Don't worry about me, I read a lot and know what's going on.

[book_worm]

18. avoid a "Walter Cronkite moment"!! You mean you aren't a journalist who tells the truth

as you see it, but must be a cheerleader for the war effort.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

57. She probably wants to avoid an "Edward R. Murrow moment", too

God forbid she would stand up and tell the truth about a politician who is abusing his power to destroy innocent lives.

Katie is living in a perpetual Paris Hilton moment: all fluff and no substance (but a ton of money!).

[provis99]

19. well then whats the point of reporting?

Just replace Couric with an industrial robot that can read teleprompters. It would be as enlightening as she is, and a lot cheaper.

[closeupready]

22. LOL 50 bazillion dollars cheaper!

:rofl:

[Greyhound]

29. I think that's Brazillion... n/t

[Greyhound]

28. Don't worry, it's coming. Remember Max Headroom?

We have the technology right now, it is just a matter of accelerating the rendering and synchronization process so that they can meet daily deadlines.

[Zandor]

20. As a network anchor, she has a point

She is terrible as any type of news person, but she probably shouldn't be passing opinions on the war while she's an anchor, and certainly shouldn't incorporate them into her reporting.

[Lucinda]

48. Then she needs to stay behind her desk and not make trips to Iraq

Thats what journalists do. They GO. Newsreaders sit. And avoid being like Cronkite. :eyes:

[Benhurst]

21. Please, people. Give the poor woman a break.

Can you even begin to imagine how difficult it must be to remain perky after 50?

[baldguy]

23. If the Iraw War isn't "egregious" then nothing is.

[Johonny]

25. As an interesting side note

The viewers appear to be avoiding her as she avoids a Walter Cronkite moment.

[Bluebear]

27. Nobody will confuse you with Cronkite, hon. HE RAWKED at his job!

[Kagemusha]

30. Uh, whoever wrote that headline was massively off.

She used the words, "say this war is terrible and withdrawal is necessary". Where does anyone get "to critically report" out of that!!?? That's not what critical reporting means!!

That's advocacy, editorializing, i.e. the sort of thing Olbermann does all the time, because that's HIS job. I am startled and outraged at the idea that critical reporting means propagating political conclusions about foreign policy. Critical reporting certainly can include "the war is terrible"; the "and withdrawal is necessary" part is problematic.

Critical reporting means criticizing things like the manipulation of facts and excess happy talk. Therefore, she in no way said it's not her job to critically report on Iraq, either in those words, or in the full context of her actual words.

(Edit: ...Which in no way means that I accept the idea that she IS doing critical reporting on Iraq, but that is, as they say, another story.)

[BlooInBloo]

33. Katie Couric: The Definition Of Shallow.

[TheUniverse]

35. Well I guess its "not my Job" to watch your crappy program.

[terisan]

53. You are exactly right. We need a media boycott of crap 'n pap courics. nt

[Lone_Star_Dem]

36. And there's nothing egregious about the Iraq war?

Barring these facts:

That there's over two million Iraqi refugees living in other countries. Another two million Iraqi people displaced within Iraq. Another 1 million Iraqi people dead.

That there were no WMD's and that the WH knew that fact but chose to push on with their war. Which makes the entire premise for the war illegal.

That an entire countries infrastructure has been demolished.

Does she mean other than that there's nothing egregious about the war?

[Jim__]

37. Is it her job to report?

If the situation is a disaster, it is, indeed, her job to report it. I guess that's why they need reporters reporting.

[Gman]

39. "...really egregious and without question wrong"??

That settles it. She is a bimbo.

Give her back her cheerleader outfit.

[Dr Fate]

40. Call me crazy, but the current concept of "objectivity" is highly over-rated these days.

Imagine Mark Twain being "objective" about slavery, for instance.

I would prefer to have opposing SUBJECTIVE reporters who told you where they stand and backed it up with facts that they investigate- instead of this non-opinion, non-news, nothingness that passes for "journalism" these days...

[allisonthegreat]

43. is she taking payments from the White House

Geez come on girl...Let's here some real journalism. If you are capable.

[SidDithers]

44. "Navy Seals RAWK!!"...nt

Sid

[mitchtv]

45. LEAVE KATIE ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

[Uncle Joe]

46. What does the CBS eye represent? The damn thing should be closed for Katie's sake!

Maybe they should change their logo to some Zzzzs to represent sleeping.

[Oeditpus Rex]

50. What I find truly bizarre

is that here we see a network news anchor being called out for shoddy reporting (i.e. the "nine questions" Kalb mentions). Let's forget for the moment that she has no defense for this; the fact that that a network news anchor's journalism skills are being questioned by one who truly knows something about reporting (no less than Edward R. Murrow recruited Kalb to CBS) says more about Couric and CBS News — if not TV news in general — than anything else I can think of.

You'd think that by the time someone becomes the anchor at one of the "Big Three," it would be they who are the teachers. But here we see Kalb taking Couric to school, and she doesn't even seem to think the lesson is warranted.

[terisan]

51. What a piece of fluff ! Issue some HB1 visas for Jounalists-we have a desperate shortage.nt

[Swamp Rat]

52. Because she is not a real journalist.

[earth mom]

54. WTF-And she calls herself a journalist?

:puke:

[Disturbed]

58. Her "job" & Dana Perino's are interchangeable.

They could switch places & it would be hard to tell the difference.

[ljm2002]

59. What a vapid little twit she is...

...and I guess she'll wait for Bush and his minions to inform her if something is "egregious" in Iraq. Heaven forfend she might do -- gasp -- any RESEARCH on the story she is covering.

No, per Katie, the Iraq occupation is nothing more than a "human interest" story, about people caught in the unavoidable natural disaster that happened in Iraq. Good thing the Americans are there to save the day!

Billions unaccounted for, planeloads of unmarked bills distributed without any accounting, huge munitions stores unguarded and allowed to fall into the hands of our enemies there, thousands of armed men put out of work, infrastructure that continues to worsen, mercenaries who fire upon civilians at will and without accountability, blatant corruption by our contractors there, soldiers going without proper protection -- but hey, none of that is "egregious" enough for Ms. Perky.

I truly despise Katie "Navy Seals Rawk!" Couric, and hope karma comes along and gives her the tremendous ass-kicking she deserves. Preferably on camera.