Nancy Franklin on Katie Couric: "A Very Expensive Band-Aid That Failed to Stop the Bleeding"
In the new issue of The New Yorker, television critic Nancy Franklin takes a look at Katie Couric's performance on "The CBS Evening News."
Her verdict?
Not super!
"Couric's interpretation of the role of anchor led her to repress the qualities that drew people to her in the first place, and she often comes across as hollow and robotic," writes Ms. Franklin. "I'm never as aware that anybody is reading from a teleprompter as I am when I'm watching Couric."
More from the review:
She is essentially wasted in this job, as it has been defined by her and by Moonves, but the fact is that anyone with more of a reporting background would probably have been even unhappier in the job than Couric has evidently been, because CBS doesn't appear to be all that interested in maintaining its news division; earlier this year, it was reported that the network was looking into using CNN feeds in order to reduce its news-gathering expenses. It costs CBS seven million dollars a year to run its Baghdad bureau, which does sound like a lot of money-until you realize that Couric makes about fifteen million dollars a year and, last year, Moonves made close to forty million. Couric is far from being the most important part of the story; her time at CBS will be, luckily for her, just a footnote to history, a very expensive Band-Aid that failed to stop the bleeding.
