In a Blogcritics interview with Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz on his book Reality Show, Scott Butki asked if CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric really hated the P-word when applied to her:
I wanted you to elaborate on a paragraph on page 254 and whether you think it was fair for the media to caricature Katie Couric and whether she herself ever made that quote attributed to friends:
But she couldn’t stand the way the press invented a shorthand for you, a Velcro label that you could never peel off. The joke among her friends was that Katie had decided what she wanted chiseled on her tombstone, 'Don’t Call Me [expletive deleted] Perky.'
Also, how much of the criticism of Katie came because of her gender?
Kurtz replied:
Yes, she said it among friends as a joke, which is clear. But underlying the joke is a real resentment at the press over the way she is covered and, in her view, caricatured. I think Couric made a number of mistakes when she got to CBS and is paying the price. But there’s no question that she’s held to a different standard than male anchors, with all the focus on her hair, legs, wardrobe and social life. No one questioned Brian’s decision to go to Iraq, but when Katie went there was a debate about her being a single mother and whether it was some kind of stunt. That was unfair.
It's not technically true that no one questioned Brian Williams going to Iraq. He was the first anchor to attempt it since ABC's Bob Woodruff was severely injured there. Howard Kurtz, in fact, questioned him about it, to be precise. (He questioned not only the safety, but if Williams might end up looking like the military's patsy.)
I wouldn't agree that Couric's decision to go to Iraq was a bad decision as a "single mother" (widowed mother), but it's not unreasonable or sexist to question the trip as a ratings gambit when her ratings have been so disappointing.
