It's not often you'll hear a lefty like Katie Couric express sadness for someone like Tucker Carlson and his "downfall," even as she suggested he can't be "rehabilitated." But on Kelly Ripa's Sirius XM show Let's Talk Off Camera, she spoke like someone who knows about losing a top spot in national news. Near the very end of the show, she was talking about how Matt Lauer's career fell apart:
KATIE COURIC: I think my overwhelming emotion is I'm just so disappointed and so sad. And, you know, on a human level, you know, it's hard to see someone, as Andy Lack told me when Matt was fired, go from hero to zero. That's hard to witness. I think people just relish watching people fall from grace and, you know, there's also a certain sadness, you know.
Maybe you don't like Tucker Carlson, maybe you don't like Don Lemon. I think in Tucker's case, he's -- you know, to lie to the public is beyond -- I think you can't really be rehabilitated from that. But, you know, I don't think anybody should take a lot of joy in seeing people's downfall.
KELLY RIPA: I feel the same way you do. I don't -- do not relish in people's failures. It is not my brand.
Earlier in the show, Couric brought up the Dominion suit against Fox, suggesting Carlson may have been canceled due to some "pretty gross communiques" that were revealed in discovery. Couric said John Ellis, a former Fox News employee who's part of the extended Bush family -- and who she said officiated her 2014 wedding to John Molner -- told her the anchors at Fox had an “outsized influence,” and she remarked “it sounds like the inmates are running the asylum.”
She added "The audience is programming Fox News, not the other way around. They were so craven and desperate for ratings, and so desperate for holding on to viewers that they sold their souls."
That's a little rich, all the preaching about pandering to an ideological audience, as if she never did that at NBC or CBS. As for misinforming people, in 2016, Couric had to apologize for mangling video of her interview with gun-rights activists in Virginia.
PS: Couric and Ripa also spoke briefly about how they both attended the Donald Trump wedding with Melania in Florida in 2005. "I remember that wedding was really boring," Couric said, since it had no DJ or dancing. But there were many famous people there, and Couric said she had a hidden camera in her purse.
