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Couric Fails at CBS, But Liberals Defend Her 'Gravitas' With...Palin-Bashing Interview

By Tim Graham | May 18, 2011 | 07:23

A  A
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In surveying the wreckage of the Katie Couric experiment at CBS – $75 million flushed away for a distant third-place finish each week – the liberal journalists are blaming elderly viewers for not accepting Sunny Katie. Here’s James Rainey in the Los Angeles Times:

A change-averse viewership doubtless greeted the initial formatting changes for Couric's "Evening News" as confirmation that "America's Sweetheart," straight from her sunny a.m. perch, didn't have the gravitas for the job. Actually, those impressions had little to do with the newscast that emerged over Couric's five-year tenure.

And what, pray tell, proves Couric’s gravitas? Bashing Sarah Palin, of course, as uninformed. Rainey didn’t ask how Couric would have performed if the tables were turned and Palin was the one holding the microphone like a baseball bat:

Her series of interviews with Sarah Palin, in which the vice presidential candidate appeared evasive and under-informed, will doubtless go down as her single most memorable story.

You might "appear evasive and under-informed" too if the journalist was bound and determined to paint that portrait. Couric won the "Walter Cronkite Award" for "her multi-part interview of Sarah Palin that led to endless mocking of the Alaskan governor on late night shows and that some said helped derail John McCain's campaign."

What's insulting is that anyone could think Katie Couric had a much deeper intelligence than Sarah Palin. Could Couric withstand a good grilling on quantitative easing or nuclear reactors? She was hired for being the good-morning grinny-face, not for gravitas. Rainey didn’t want to remember how Couric demonstrated her "gravitas" days before with her softball interview with Captain Ice Cream – I mean, Joe Biden:

COURIC: He's the close-talking, free-wheeling, ice-cream eating Democratic nominee for Vice President. Senator Joe Biden isn't holding back....Relating to the fears of the average American is one of Biden's strong suits...as he did recently with these union members in Akron....It's something that comes easily for this son of a car salesman from Scranton, Pennsylvania.

COURIC TO PEOPLE IN AUDIENCE: What was it about what he said that really resonated with you in particular?

Trying to argue that the CBS audience was too fuddy-duddy to accept Katie sounds a little like Dana Carvey's George Bush saying Dan Quayle is "still gaining acceptance." Why do liberals insist Quayle or George W. Bush were idiots, but never want to acknowledge the gravitas-challenged public figures in the media?

About the Author

Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Tim Graham on Twitter.
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Comments

Why do liberals insist Quayle

Submitted by Ed Gregory on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 7:36am.

Why do liberals insist Quayle or George W. Bush were idiots, but never want to acknowledge the gravitas-challenged public figures in the media?

This is a rhetoical question. It's because liberals wear failure like a badge of honor. Even when they're glaringly wrong, their elitism tells them they're always right and that everybody else is too dumb to get it. And considering she pocketed $75 million to gas up her minivan, she'll feel even more empowered by her failure at CBS.

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It's formulaic, Ed

Submitted by Blonde on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 7:54am.

Yesterday we attended Allen West's Town Hall meeting. There were about eight Move.On potted plants in the audience, one of whom was sitting across from us as we waited for the meeting to begin.

Predictably enough, he mentioned BOTH Bush and Quayle. At that point, I ignored him.

As for your "glaringly wrong" comment, a few minutes into the meeting (West does a slide show update to start, and this was during this part of the Town Hall), another potted plant got up and started screaming about "raise taxes on the corporations, Tax Big Oil"...yada yada. The audience kind of shouted her down. She did it again, and he got the better of her, when she saw the logic of his position, she said "Oh, I'm sorry"....to which he replied "apology accepted". But she left and went out to the lobby, where she gave an interview (it's up on SharkTank.net if you're interested), where she again repeated her (wrong) position, insisting Congressman West didn't address her concerns. She was so convinced she was right, stupid plant.

Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)

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Sounds like she was just

Submitted by Ed Gregory on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 8:16am.

Sounds like she was just trying to be a good little liberal soldier -- well, soldier isn't the right term for liberals. She just wanted to be a good little robot and spout the narrative, which she went right back to in the interview. The thing I don't get is why this girl and the Move.On-ers even bother to show up at a rally for a guy like Allen West, who sounds pretty beloved by his constituency and especially those who voted for him. Do they really think they're going to attract people to their side, or are they just there to score useful-idiot points with their chapter? The closest I ever came to going to a rally like that was when Sarah Palin came to a book-signing in Orlando. I decided not to go because I was afraid my knees would give out when I got close to her. I wish I were kidding.

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They were easy to spot....

Submitted by Blonde on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 8:59am.

When we first walked in, there were about eight of them outside with signs "Don't take our Medicare" and whatnot. There was a pre-event article in the local mullet wrapper, titled of course, "MoveOn.org to protest Allen West Town Hall". Holy mackeral, eight of them!!!! What a protest.

Here's the moonbat to whom I refer.   The Secret Service was giving her the Evil Eye, for sure.  She got tossed last month from another of Allen West's Town Hall meetings. He gets some epic moonbats, he told the local CAIR guy "don't blow smoke up my butt". ROTFL. That video, and another, where he does an absolutely hilarious imitation of the mincing Harry Reid, are also on that site.   I would say the good colonel doesn't suffer fools lightly. 

Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)

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Here's your answer

Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 10:01am.

Why do they show up? They want to provoke the next 'macaca' moment and shut down a potential threat. They are out of ideas.

Americans keeping their own earnings is a Civil Right! Demand your Civil Rights!
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Macaca moment

Submitted by Blonde on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 10:13am.

I don't think that's going to work in Allen West's case.

He is one cool customer. Quite charming in person. And he's got the repartee (and little sayings down, too..."my dad taught me a maxim I live by, don't read your press clippings, and don't drink your bath water"). He's amused by this nonsense. At one point, they were getting group rowdy, and he said in a loud voice "At Ease". All the military guys just ate it up, it was a riot.

Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)

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I am surprised they didn't

Submitted by motherbelt on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 10:55am.

I am surprised they didn't make a huge deal out of his comment about Obama: "I can't stand the guy."

Jim Webb was a hero to them, for saying that he wanted to punch President Bush. And that was for Bush's daring to ask how Webb's son was doing!

Why aren't they extolling West as a hero? 

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Darwinism at work, one hopes

Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 7:49am.

CBS should ask for a refund. Then again, they are too stupid too realize they threw their money away.

Americans keeping their own earnings is a Civil Right! Demand your Civil Rights!
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Perky Katie

Submitted by HockeyKid on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 7:50am.

Didn't even blink when Lunchbox Joe talked about FDR going on television in response to the stock market crash of '29. She just smiled, nodded her head, and prepared her next highly educated question, with terms like "uber-careful".

She has proven herself to be as stupidly ambitious as any newsreader, but not nearly as capable as most.

"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me

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Wow. Who could have seen this coming?

Submitted by NickDeringer on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 8:01am.

The Old Media is becoming more and more out of touch with the American people. It's over for network news.

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It could also be

Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 8:08am.

that most people don't enjoy watching and listening to condescending a-holes. That's also why I don't watch ABC & NBC. Sorry, but I don't know who anchors their evening news.

President Obama is a Muslim (from his own lips), Kenyan (read it from his publicist) a homosexual (read it on a news magazine cover) and a Socialist (I'm alive and can see it for myself)
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Sweet Jesus.

Submitted by johnsonl on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 8:15am.

When I think of how much good I could have done with 75 million dollars and the fact that it was wasted on that air head, I just shake my head. Nobody needs that much money to talk to a camera. My father's advice, when asked about career choices, was "You can make a living or you can make a difference."

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The Libs keep up with the

Submitted by Van Halen on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 8:15am.

The Libs keep up with the 'Palin is stupid' mantra. But they ignore the fact that Palin was one of the first to identify the death panels, putting the Obama Administration on the defensive. Palin has brought Conservatism into the national dialogue, and it's Palin who was largely responsible for an over 800+ seat Republican win in the 2010 elections. Where was the double-genius of Couric and Obama then?

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Why do liberals insist Quayle

Submitted by motherbelt on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 9:05am.

Why do liberals insist Quayle or George W. Bush were idiots, but never want to acknowledge the gravitas-challenged public figures in the media?

Because the public figures in the media put on their "smart glasses" (the men, way down on their nose, like Charlie Gibson, so they can peer condescendingly over the top) and speak in oh-so-earnest tones.

That's apparently what constitutes "gravitas" to liberals.

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mb,

Submitted by Chris Norman on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 9:43am.

Katie is getting a bit long in the tooth for the nerdy glasses which are supposed to be "cute in a serious way" to work. At first, I couldn't place who she resembles in those glasses, then I realized she looks like the SNL Molly Shannon character Mary Katherine Gallagher.

Let's make the 2012 campaign: "The War on Error"
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Oh my, Chris!

Submitted by motherbelt on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 10:55am.

Isn't she the one who sticks her fingers in her armpits and then smells them????

Too funny!!

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just like her brain waves

Submitted by Injest on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 6:32pm.

"the nerdy glasses"

The FAKE nerdy glasses. Look at them they are flat, perfectly flat, just like her brain waves!

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CBS's Don Larsen

Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 9:43am.

Don Larsen was a baseball pitcher for numerous major league teams from 1953 through 1967. His long but rather unremarkable career would easily be forgotten but for one afternoon in October 1956: Playing for the New York Yankees, he pitched the only perfect game in World Seried history -- a singular achievement that stands today.

But for that perfect World Series game in front of a national audience, almost no one would remember Don or his 15 years in the major leagues.

Couric's notorious interview of Palin was her Don Larsen Moment, at least as far as the Left and the MSM is concerned. Though she has proven to be an unspectacular network anchor, she will always be celebrated for that one event.

That's show biz.

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"Great Moments In Liberal News History"

Submitted by Chris Norman on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 9:51am.

"she will always be celebrated for that one event."

...where Sweet Katie Purebred earned her liberal bones

Let's make the 2012 campaign: "The War on Error"
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I quit watching the Network

Submitted by Joe C Camel on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 9:47am.

I quit watching the Network News shows back in the 80's. Got tired of the same ol' thing from them. Other than the local weather, I don't watch any news on network TV. Now the only thing that gets press is "green" and pet stories. They seem to miss the 27 murders, rapes, muggings and such that happened during the day.....Heavy sigh....

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Every time I hear a

Submitted by Free Stinker on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 10:10am.

Every time I hear a friend/co-worker/neighbor/relative brings up that interview, I ask them why CBS is keeping the full unedited interview hidden. That shuts up the 95% of them who realize what that fact means.  The really hard-core Liberals try to claim that CBS is merely asserting copyright, but there are plenty of clips from CBS all over Youtube that don't seem to get removed.

 

   /// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 ///    خال

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I love the nerd glasses she used.

Submitted by wizardjr on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 11:39am.

More props to give her some seriousness. ha ha ha ha, epic fail

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I think her head was the prop . . .

Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 1:08pm.

. . . to model the eyeglasses.

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just another bobble head

Submitted by scarletandgold on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 12:33pm.

see ya bobble head...im sure u can wear those glasses,,( because they make you look so important ) with your burka...

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Buh Bye Katie

Submitted by Six String Spiff on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 1:58pm.

It says alot that the 'highlight' of your 'career' was the Palin interview where in you asked her which biased pile of garbage does she read, and she hammers you with "Her own thoughts". Something liberals love to squawk about ONLY when they coincide with theirs. You threw grenades at an accomplished politician to defend your candidate who wasn't even as accomplished as the local supermarket cart pusher.

Good riddance you shallow snotty bitch.

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I wish I could have the first post-CBS interview of Couric

Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 3:16pm.

QUESTIONS:

-  So, at what point did you realize that the network anchor gig wasn't working?

-  Do you find it amazing that someone would pay you $15 million a year to read a teleprompter?

-  Did a thought bubble appear over your head when Joe Biden told you that FDR went on TV in 1929 to explain the stock market crash?

-  How are you coping with utter failure?

-  Do you think you could ever hang out with Snookie?

 

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Seriously who does that

Submitted by Injest on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 6:29pm.

"And what, pray tell, proves Couric’s gravitas?"

Must be those flat fake ugly (BCD) glasses she wears!

Seriously who does that? Fake glasses? Is it a costume? For a Clown?

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