On Sunday, Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan took a break from her usual ogling over Michelle Obama and praised the glitzy fashion shoot of CBS anchor Katie Couric in an article headlined "Harper’s Bazaar hails the conquering Couric, a power broker in stiletto heels."

Nowhere in the article does Givhan discuss the bad PR echo after the layoffs of "dozens" at CBS News, where network suits surrounding the "conquering Couric" declared she would make no pay concessions to save the little people. (Isn’t it a little funny when a news organization won’t offer a precise layoff number to other media?)

Instead, Givhan lauded the anchorwoman for daring to obsess over her own image and add some "sexy," and for helping get those wonderful Obamas elected:

From Monday's broadcast network evening newscasts: CBS and NBC found hypocrisy in Sarah Palin scolding President Obama's incessant use of a Teleprompter while she had “crib notes” written on her hand during her Saturday Tea Party convention appearance, CBS followed by giving Obama two-straight minutes to explain why the public will come around to “connect” with him again and, meanwhile, ABC devoted a full story to “whether Republicans want action or are just the 'Party of No'?”

CBS's Nancy Cordes reported, over a helpful graphic showing the words written on Palin's hand, that while Palin “dismissed the President Saturday night as a 'charismatic guy with a Teleprompter,' she may have been relying on some crib notes of her own.” Cordes concluded: “Her supporters called it an endearing sign that Palin's a real person, while detractors argue it's proof she doesn't know her facts.” On NBC, Brian Williams led the Palin story with how “it happened after a speech where she criticized the President for relying too much on a Teleprompter.”  

Next on CBS, Katie Couric highlighted how, in her pre-SuperBowl sit-down with Obama, she had raised with him that “people are not sure who he is or what he stands for.” Viewers were then treated to a two-minute long answer from Obama, ending with his insistance that when the economy improves “we'll do just fine and everybody will be saying what a connection President Obama has with the American people. Which is what they were saying a year ago.” (“They” being journalists?)

Los Angeles Times TV critic Mary McNamara sounded like she had stars on her eyes as she reviewed the new World News with Diane Sawyer on Friday:

In a world dominated by YouTube moments and professional hysterics, Sawyer exudes an alarming level of elegance.

You can hear the Times, like an echo of Charlie Gibson clucking "let the cables" do the ugly scandal news. Sawyer, the new face of the liberal media aristocracy, exudes class and intellect and verve, unlike the Perky One:

During a web-only interview with CBS's Katie Couric to promote her new role on "American Idol," comedienne Ellen DeGeneres went on a rant about our sexist culture that demands women look more attractive than men.

There's just one problem: DeGeneres is the face of Proctor and Gamble's famous makeup line CoverGirl. In fact, she even appeared in a well known commercial saying, "Inner beauty is important -- but not nearly as important as outer beauty."

Too bad a serious journalist like Couric didn't think to ask if DeGeneres's fans might get confused. Then again, The Perky One would have had to confront her own complicity in flouting short skirts on network news programs and giving condescending interviews to women like Sarah Palin.

Without regard to the obvious hypocrisy, Couric teed up the subject by asking if DeGeneres was concerned for women who "are so obsessed and worried and spend so much time thinking about their bodies." DeGeneres used the question to accuse American culture of a sexist double standard (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript):

On Thursday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric lamented the impact ClimateGate and other recent scandals involving fraudulent global warming data have had on the climate change debate: “Experts insist the overall conclusion remains the same, that climate change is real, but...such errors provide ammunition to skeptics.”

In a report that followed, correspondent Mark Phillips cited accusations of data tampering against Penn State University climatologist Michael Mann, but explained: “An academic board today cleared Mann, saying his science holds up, but the damage may have already been done.” Phillips went on to detail other data errors, including a false United Nations climate panel report on melting Himalayan glaciers and the ClimateGate scandal at Britain’s East Anglia University.

Phillips observed how the “series of gaffes by climate change scientists,” has created “a frustrating time for those who believe the basic science in global warming remains true.” A clip was then played of Imperial College London climatologist Brian Hoskins fretting: “it appears the whole edifice has been undermined by these couple of bricks that are flaking a bit.”

Phillips concluded his report by explaining the real problem facing global warming advocates: “The scientists may still believe they’re winning the scientific argument, but they’re in danger of losing the public relations war.”    

Just when you forgot the horrifying images of the "Dance, Katie, Dance" special captionfest.

"The culture's come a long way, baby, what with two female solo anchors now presiding over America's three major network-news shows," purred Phoebe Eaton of Harper's Bazaar magazine in a feature in which she interviewed CBS "Evening News" anchor Katie Cougar, er, Couric.

But while she celebrated how Katie "peel[ed] Sarah Palin like a raw carrot on issues of foreign policy and the economy," Eaton included a vampy video of Couric at a photo shoot all dolled up for the fashion cameras and talking about such serious affairs as what makes her feel sexy (little black dresses) and the source of her good looks (genetics).

Sample sound bite: "I've been very fortunate. All the girls in my family have pretty good legs, I guess."

Update - 2/4, 11:46 AM | Lachlan Markay: CBS News President Sean McManus has denied that the network will cut Couric's pay. Details below.

Katie Couric may be getting a taste of her own populist medicine. When the Dow hit 10,000 last October, she (and other network news personalities) used the opportunity to bemoan massive payments to Wall Street bankers. But now the populist sentiment has turned on her. She faces dramatic pay cuts as CBS News downsizes.

Couric, shown in a, er, file photo at right, "makes enough to pay 200 news reporters $75,000 a year! It's complete insanity," one CBS News insider told the Drudge Report. "We report with great enthusiasm how much bankers are making, how it is out of step with reality during a recession. Well look at Katie!"

The employee was referring to Couric's roughly $14 million annual salary, the highest in network news. That salary may be cut dramatically in the face of massive layoffs at CBS News branches in Washington, San Francisco, Miami, London, Los Angeles and Moscow.

Cautioning the Obama administration's “deficit projections...are just that, projections,” NBC's Chuck Todd on Monday evening bought into the White House's claim that Democratic health care reform bills that would add millions to the system are actually spending reduction measures, as he warned: “If health care doesn't pass, because this budget assumes health care will pass, that's yet another $150 billion that would be tacked on to the deficit.”

ABC's Jake Tapper also passed along the ludicrous contention, but at least stressed Obama's team is assuming passage of “reform” that's very unlikely to be enacted: “The President outlines a number of measures to reduce the deficit, over $1 trillion worth. But Diane, perhaps the most surprising, the budget assumes a savings of $150 billion over the next ten years from health care reform, legislation that is at the very best -- at the most optimistic -- on life support on Capitol Hill right now.”

“Tonight, the President takes on his Republican opponents face to face and fact by fact,” Katie Couric teased at the top of Friday’s CBS Evening News in setting up an anti-Republican zinger from President Barack Obama: “That's factually just not true. And you know it's not true.”

Reporting on Obama’s appearance before GOP House members at their retreat in Baltimore, Chip Reid was in awe of Obama and delivered lines that might as well have been formulated by White House Press Secretary Roberts Gibbs:

♦ It was extraordinary. And it was a command performance by the President. In fact, some Republicans are wondering if they made a mistake by allowing TV cameras in the room.

♦ It was on health care reform where he finally revealed his exasperation with Republican attacks.

♦ Throughout what was essentially a policy debate, the President demonstrated intimate knowledge of the issues....And deep familiarity with Republican positions.

♦ Republicans were on their best behavior. There were no “you lie” moments. But when the President thought the last question was unfair, he let him know it.

♦ Here at the White House, some believe this could be a game-changer for the President. As one official put it, this is the best thing the President has done in a very long time.

Following President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, on CBS Katie Couric revealed her reading interests as she endorsed the take on Obama from a liberal New York Times columnist: “Well, as Tom Friedman said, 'he's better at making us smarter than making us angry.'” (Friedman's actual assertion in his January 27 column: “He is so much better at making us smarter than angrier.”)

Then, after the Republican response, Anthony Mason recited as relevant the very skewed findings of a CBS News/Knowledge Networks online poll only of those who watched Obama, nonetheless touting how 83 percent approve of Obama's “proposals made in his speech,” with disapproval from a piddling 17 percent. As evidence Obama “may have made up sound ground” with the public, Mason juxtaposed how for “shares your priorities for the country” Obama jumped to 70 percent for viewers of his speech compared to the 57 percent determined in an earlier national survey. (The online posting contends both numbers are just for those who watched.)

Both ABC’s Diane Sawyer and CBS’s Katie Couric interviewed White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as part of their networks’ run-up to tonight’s State of the Union address, but the contrast was stark. While Sawyer attempted to feel Emanuel’s pain over the setbacks for health care legislation (“Two times you have rolled the health care rock up the hill....and two times you have seen it crash back down”), a much feistier Couric interrogated Emanuel over the White House’s political failings.

“As you know, people were pretty disgusted by deals that were made up on Capitol Hill like the one given to Ben Nelson to win his support. If the White House was so involved, was this done with your blessing?” Couric demanded. Moments later, she hit Emanuel with this zinger: “You are considered a master political operative, you were the guy four years ago, of course, who orchestrated the Democratic takeover of the House. Where were you when Massachusetts was going down in flames for the Democrats?”

"For 15 Democratic and six Republican congressmen, food and rooms for two nights cost $4,400 tax dollars each. That`s $2,200 a day, more than most Americans spend on their monthly mortgage payment."

So said CBS's Sharyl Attkisson Monday in a remarkable follow-up to her January 11 "Evening News" piece concerning the out of control spending by members of Congress at December's United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen. 

Anchor Katie Couric teased viewers as the program opened, "CBS News exposed it: a congressional junket to the climate summit in Copenhagen. Now we can tell you how much it cost taxpayers as we followed the money."

Minutes later, Attkisson sliced and diced well-known members of Congress for their irresponsible spending of other people's money (video embedded below the fold with transcript, h/t NB John D. Seymour):

The unencumbered ability to sway voters is great for the news media, but journalists are outraged others could re-acquire the same First Amendment rights. Instead of painting a victory for free speech in the Supreme Court's ruling that corporations, non-profit groups and unions can spend money to influence elections, the Thursday broadcast network evening newscasts feared a ruinous future:

“Opening floodgates” to “big money” with “corporate interests having even more of a say” by “attacking political candidates,” resulting in “the real danger...that the candidates are just going to get drowned out” as “special interests” may “take over political campaign advertising.”

“On that subject of big money and power,” ABC anchor Diane Sawyer intoned, “a blockbuster decision from the Supreme Court today opening floodgates for companies and unions to spend all the money they want attacking political candidates.” On NBC, anchor Brian Williams previewed “the news today that will result in big companies and corporate interests having even more of a say in American politics and campaigns.”

Less than two hours before the polls closed in Massachusetts, CBS News political analyst John Dickerson argued that if Republican candidate Scott Brown wins tonight, “it's just going to get a lot uglier in Washington,” declaring that Republicans “feel excited and they see glory in attacking the President.”

After talking about prospects for the Democrats’ unpopular health care bill, CBS anchor Katie Couric asked Dickerson: “Finally, if this seat goes Republican, how will it change the political climate in Washington?”

Dickerson warned: “It's going to get uglier. Republicans, no matter what the outcome is, feel emboldened, they feel excited and they see glory in attacking the President. Democrats, on the other hand, have to really fight hard against that sentiment. The President's getting into that fight, pushing a populist message, and so in the end it's just going to get a lot uglier in Washington.”

In yet another testament to liberals celebrating liberals, on Thursday the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism announced that CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric won the Alfred I. duPont award for excellence in broadcast journalism for her slanted 2008 interview with vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

In the interview, shown over a number of days on the CBS Evening News in September of 2008, Couric routinely sought trip up Palin. As NewsBusters' Brent Baker reported, on the September 29 broadcast, Couric pounded Palin on Pakistan, despite lobbing softballs to Joe Biden on the economy.

MediaBistro.com’s TVNewser obtained note to staff from CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus, who proclaimed that the award was “a testament to Katie’s excellence” and added that “the interviews have gone on to become an iconic moment in television journalism.” He also noted that the interviews “had a profound impact on the presidential campaign.” So much for journalists being neutral observers.

In March of 2009, Couric won the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism from the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication for the Palin interviews.

It was a year ago this weekend that the Israeli military halted its three-week campaign, Operation Cast Lead, against Hamas militants in Gaza, during which Israel had responded to thousands of rockets and mortars launched from Gaza over several years. During Israel’s military campaign, on a number of major stories, many American television newscasts were more inclined to report accusations made by U.N. or Palestinian officials that the Israeli military had acted improperly than they were to update viewers after the military held investigations and released reports disputing the accusations made against it. At one point, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric went so far as to claim that the Israelis "may have used a banned weapon."

Below is a compilation of NewsBusters postings which document how the morning and evening newscasts on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FNC, and PBS reported a number of major stories from the Gaza War, highlighting examples of the media either engaging in distortion or omitting relevant information that would have cast Israel in a more favorable light, including several times when the broadcast and news networks even ignored reports issued by the Israeli military after it had taken time to investigate and dispute accusations made against its troops which had previously been reported by the media.

On January 6, 2009, there was an infamous explosion near the U.N.-run Fakhura school at the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza, as the Israeli military did battle with Hamas fighters. The Israeli military’s official account of the incident, released in February 2009, contended that 12 people died outside the school, nine of whom were identified as Hamas members. But, as ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FNC, and PBS reported the incident early on, all cited a substantially higher account of the death toll which was claimed by Palestinian officials and the U.N. as being "more than forty" or "dozens,"claiming that many civilians – who were sheltering inside the school to escape the danger of Israeli airstrikes – were among the dead. While most news shows did relay the Israeli account that the explosion occurred because their troops were battling Hamas members, these news shows never reported to viewers the official Israeli account that nearly all who died were Hamas members. In fact, some earlier reports had cited the number of Hamas members in the group as being as low as two.

As unusually cold temperatures in America of late have been making liberals scramble to fit the conditions into global warming theory, viewers of Friday’s CBS Evening News were informed by host Katie Couric that Britain is also enduring record winter conditions as the United Kingdom is experiencing "its longest cold spell in nearly three decades." The news brief was accompanied by a satellite image of the currently snow-covered island nation.

Below is a complete transcript of the item read by Couric from the Friday, January 8, CBS Evening News:

The Media Research Center's "Best Notable Quotables of 2009: The Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting" are garnering some media attention of their own. MRC President Brent Bozell drew laughs from the gang on Fox & Friends this morning as he reviewed a few of the winners, but other journalists have also found the awards worthy of coverage:

The American Spectator's Quin Hillyer, who participated as a judge of this year's awards, wrote a December 11 column going over the quotes "that particularly enraged/amused/befuddled me" even before the official results were tallied. Hillyer observed:

Sometimes you must wonder how some members of the establishment media live with themselves. Their double standards are so egregious, as is their refusal to observe the boundaries between straight news and opinionizing (to coin a word), and as are their utter contempt for and viciousness against those anywhere to the political right of them, that one would think there is no way they retain any conscience at all.

Saturday's Fox Newswatch on FNC highlighted two “winners” in the MRC's “Best Notable Quotables of 2009: The 22nd Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting.” (Posting on NewsBusters) Viewers were treated to Katie Couric pining to Barack Obama: “You're so confident, Mr. President, and so focused. Is your confidence ever shaken? Do you ever wake up and say, damn, this is hard?” FNC host Jon Scott announced “her performance there garnered the Media Research Center's 'Let Us Fluff Your Pillow Award for Obsequious Obama Interviews.'” Scott also pointed out how Time magazine's Joe Klein won the “Master of His Domain Award for Obama Puffery” for his cover story on Barack Obama’s first 100 days.

Panelist Rich Lowry of National Review, picking up on Ellis Henican's description of both quotes as “icky,” soon observed they were hardly an aberration: “If you go to the Media Research Center Web site and look at every single video clip from the inauguration” you'll see “every single one of them is icky from every single major media outlet. They were in love with this guy and they still are -- most of them.”

Audio: MP3 clip (45 secs)

Saturday’s Fox News Watch gave attention to a couple of entries in the MRC’s "Best Notable Quotables of 2009: The 22nd Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting." Returning from a commercial break, a clip of CBS’s Katie Couric began the segment as Couric was shown expressing awe at President Obama’s confidence as she interviewed him last July. Couric: "You’re so confident, Mr. President, and so focused. Is your confidence ever shaken? Do you ever wake up and say, ‘Damn, this is hard’?"

FNC host Jon Scott then jumped in to credit the MRC:

That’s Katie Couric earlier this year with President Obama. Her performance there garnered the Media Research Center’s "Let Us Fluff Your Pillow Award for Obsequious Obama Interviews." The MRC acknowledging more achievements in its annual awards for the year’s worst reporting. The "Master of His Domain Award for Obama Puffery" goes to Time’s Joe Klein for his May 4 cover story on Barack Obama’s first 100 days as President.

Even liberal panel member Ellis Henican of Newsday thought Couric’s words were "icky," and contended that "I wouldn’t want to be caught on tape saying either one of those things."

Media Research Center Director of Media Analysis and NewsBusters Senior Editor Tim Graham was on FNC's The O'Reilly Factor on Wednesday to talk about Katie Couric's concern that Americans were reacting to President Obama's left-wing agenda with "disrespect" and "anger."

"It reminds me a lot of 1994. I mean, when Democrats start to lose, then we have to worry about the angry American," Graham noted, later adding: "When Barack Obama wins, then the American people are very wise people, you know. They are creating history, and you like the American people. Then when the polls go south -- and the polls on this health care bill are not good at all right now and the Democrats are shoving it through anyway -- suddenly the people are angry and not very smart."

You can watch the video over at the Huffington Post (where they don't seem to like the idea of Tim or fill-in host Monica Crowley scrutinizing Ms. Couric's words). The full transcript is after the break:

MRC director of media analysis Tim Graham will appear on tonight's edition of The O'Reilly Factor with guest host Monica Crowley. The subject is Jeff Poor's report on Katie Couric's Facebook video outbursts. Why did Katie spice up a rather boring interview about chocolate chip cookies and watching "Glee" with her protests of the "disrespect" an angry nation is showing Washington? The liberal media elite's disdain for the American people is on the march again.

Show times are 8 and 11 pm Eastern.  

Remember that Couric just won an award in our Best Notable Quotables of 2009 -- the "Let Us Fluff Your Pillow Award for Obsequious Obama Interviews" -- for lamenting to the president that there's too much politicization in politics: Did he feel "it’s just too politicized to really get accomplished the big things I want to accomplish’?”

Angry, frustrated, troubled, disappointed, disgust, disrespect - words not normally associated with holiday season. However, they were words Katie Couric used to describe where she sees the mood of country right now.

Couric, the anchor of the "CBS Evening News," in a live Facebook video chat on Dec. 22, took on illustrating her view of the populace - a not very sunny picture (emphasis added).

"I think more distant - I hate to say that, but I think, I think the economic situation in this country, I think, when people are struggling, that sometimes they need a place to vent their rage and to channel their rage and I think, I feel like right now in many ways, we're a very angry nation," Couric said. "Very frustrated, troubled and disappointed in many ways in terms of people feeling that the American dream just isn't within their reach. I mean I still think it's a place of incredible opportunity and entrepreneurship. But I just think that, I don't know - maybe it's because what I do for a living, I feel that the country is pretty polarized right now."

More than a year before the end of “the first decade of the 21st century,” Katie Couric on Monday night eagerly publicized a non-CBS News poll which, she relayed, found that “as we get ready to close the chapter on the first decade of the 21st century, most of us are ready to say 'good riddance.' In a poll released today, Americans 2-to-1 expressed a negative view of the past ten years.” (The 21st century began with 2001, not 2000, so the decade will not conclude until the end of 2010.)

In reciting the numbers from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, Couric managed to avoid targeting former President George W. Bush, though in reporting the hardly-surprising finding that “more than half of people surveyed said 9/11 was the biggest event of the decade,” she marveled: “More than Barack Obama's election, the financial crisis or the war in Iraq.” Going beyond the Pew poll, Couric highlighted how Time magazine declared “it was 'The Decade from Hell.'”
 
Though the decade included Couric's elevation to the CBS Evening News anchor chair, she endorsed the revulsion toward the past ten years, concluding: “We may not know what to call this decade yet, but at least we can call it done.”