In the highly catty world of television news, the Shister has hit the fan.<\/p>\n
Katie Couric took over as anchor of the CBS Evening News in September, becoming the first sole female anchor at any of the networks. \u00a0She replaced interim anchor and veteran newsman Bob Schieffer, who publicly supported the decision despite being passed over. \u00a0Lesley Stahl, the sole female journalist at CBS\u2019 Sixty Minutes, threw Couric a celebratory luncheon, though she had also been vying for the anchor\u2019s chair.\u00a0 CBS launched the Couric era with millions of dollars in promotional support.<\/p>\n
By all measures, Couric\u2019s first six months on the job have been a failure. \u00a0Her ratings have been weak.\u00a0 In late March, she was highly criticized for suggesting in an interview that John Edwards was using his wife Elizabeth\u2019s cancer for political gain (you\u2019ll recall the professional gain Couric got from her own husband\u2019s death from colon cancer in 1998).\u00a0 In early April, it was discovered that Couric\u2019s personal online blog was being written by one of her producers, and included content plagiarized by other writers.\u00a0 Then, this past Sunday, journalist Gail Shister filed a blistering article in the Philadelphia Inquirer that asserted that CBS\u2019s own people have given up on Couric. \u00a0That her hiring was an \u201cexpensive, unfixable mistake\u201d and \u201ca disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
This, just as Couric seemed to be turning the corner. \u00a0She has been working with a new executive producer, Rick Kaplan, with good results. \u00a0Her ratings are showing signs of improvement, and last week Couric provided the timeliest, most extensive coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy of any of the news anchors. \u00a0So who provided the ammunition for Shister\u2019s assassination piece in the Inquirer? \u00a0Why, it\u2019s that kindly old Bob Schieffer and his buddy Lesley Stahl, according to industry insiders. Seems Rick Kaplan called a little staff meeting and blasted the two of them for submarining his anchor in the trades. \u00a0All of CBS\u2019s other senior people have been rallying to give her support.<\/p>\n
So now the future looks bright for Katie, right?\u00a0 Well, maybe not.\u00a0 The tabloids are all worked up over the salacious news that Couric has been dating a 33-year-old triathlete. They\u2019ve been going to restaurants, shopping, vacationing together.\u00a0 \u201cAmerica\u2019s Sweetheart\u201d has been given a new nickname:\u00a0 \u201cCouric the Cougar.\u201d\u00a0 Unforgiveable behavior for a 50-year-old mother of two!<\/p>\n
Evidently, there\u2019s more than one way to destroy a professional woman.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the way it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the highly catty world of television news, the Shister has hit the fan. Katie Couric took over as anchor of the CBS Evening News in September, becoming the first sole female anchor at any of the networks. \u00a0She replaced interim anchor and veteran newsman Bob Schieffer, who publicly supported…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[158,222,690,729,1038],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2","tag-bob-schieffer","tag-cbs-news","tag-katie-couric","tag-leslie-stahl","tag-rick-kaplan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}