Larry King Blames Sexism for Couric Ratings, Olbermann Can't Book Conservatives?

Two media tidbits today. Broadcasting & Cable magazine reports: "Count Larry King among Katie Couric’s fans. The venerable CNN host watches the new anchor of the CBS Evening News and thinks her ratings struggles have more to do with gender than with journalism. "It might still be hard for a woman to anchor the evening news," King says. "And that’s sad."

King also said it may take a major news event to help the former Today host shed her perky image: "Hurricane Katrina made Anderson Cooper. It could happen to Katie that way." (Larry slammed O'Reilly and Nancy Grace here.)

On Howard Kurtz's chat at washingtonpost.com, Kurtz was asked about the MSNBC v. Fox fight, specifically mentioning that O'Reilly has some liberals on his show (as foils, usually, he claimed), and Olbermann doesn't generally have conservatives on his show. A questioner asked:

In your interviews with Olbermann, have you pressed him about his lack of conservative guests? Even two or three years ago, he still jousted with them. His show, isolated from the rest, looks much more one-sided and propagandistic than the Fox lineup. You certainly can't imagine Olbermann cracking quips with a conservative cohost! How can someone like Olbermann suggest Bush lives in a bubble of people who agree with him and then have a show like this?

Howard Kurtz: I did raise it, and I have raised it before. He said he had some difficulty getting conservative guests to come on the program. I don't know how hard he has tried, but surely there are conservative authors, columnists and political operatives who could be persuaded to appear on MSNBC.