# Katie Couric is a fucking moron. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 6, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255 "2006-02-06T17:08:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/121 "2006-04-05T16:04:32Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > _Today_ isn’t a news show; it’s a chat show with a weather report. If you’re attempting to obtain actual news content from _Today_ your understanding of world events is going to be limited to celerbrity gossip and time-filling human interest fluff. Couric hasn’t demonstrated anything like the credentials or background to lead a news program that is supposed to cover hard political and world news. Take it up with USA Today. It’s classified as a news show, and as was pointed out before, it is usually harder news in the early going, before 7:30 or 8:00 and she does have kind of a news-anchor role at that time. It moves to the fluff pieces as the show goes along. > [@](#): > > As an attractive talking head “newsreader” she’s sufficiently well-spoken but vastly overvalued, as I suspect CBS will discover. > > Stranger What do you mean “overvalued”? She’s won her slot for 537 consecutive weeks. If she’s overvalued, they’re ALL overvalued. Sufficiently well-spoken and pleasing to look at make up a pretty significant portion of what a news anchor is. What’s Brian Williams. . .the next Murrow? Even Shieffer (who I like a lot) doesn’t use a fraction of his potential on the evening news, relative to his Sunday show. CBS must have been impressed by her likeability, and how she has handled the news segments over the years. If she was regularly confusing Italy and Argentina, barristas and barristers, or the Asteroid belt and the Van Allen belt, I imagine someone would have taken notice. Right now it’s WAY to early to claim she’s overvalued, if you look at what she’s done (not YOUR INDIVIDUAL perception of her, which is obviously not widely shared by the TV viewing public). If CBS pays her $15 million a year, and they’re still number 3 in the evening news ratings next April, then I’m right there with ya. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/122 "2006-04-05T16:33:49Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#): > > If anyone at CBS has half a brain, she won’t _be_ behind a desk. She’ll do a leg show going in and out of every break. And a donkey show on Thursdays. ---
**Author:** ![Faruiza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@Faruiza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Faruiza)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/123 "2006-04-05T16:40:44Z")
Oh, shit… Katie Couric is a member of this board?! Ladies and germs, I think we may have outed our first celebrity. Trunk = Katie!! 😃 I’m just kiddin’ Trunk, darlin. I couldn’t help but poke a little fun. I don’t have a dog in the fight, but I certainly understand why people hate Katie so. She IS annoying. Accomplished, yes, but annoying. I’m beginning to think that it’s what the masses crave. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/124 "2006-04-05T16:43:11Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > And a donkey show on Thursdays. I’ll take “Images I Never, Ever, Ever Wanted Inhabiting My Mind” for $1000, Alex. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/125 "2006-04-05T16:44:26Z")
Hee haw! ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/126 "2006-04-05T17:21:10Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > Take it up with USA Today. It’s classified as a news show, and as was pointed out before, it is usually harder news in the early going, before 7:30 or 8:00 and she does have kind of a news-anchor role at that time. It moves to the fluff pieces as the show goes along. If you are using USA Today as an example of a newspaper it explains your claim that Today is a news show. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/127 "2006-04-05T17:34:00Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > ☹ > I guess I vwill not be watching Broadcast News no more. Although it’s not technically “broadcast,” since it’s available only on cable and satellite channels, one of the best television newscasts these days in Keith Olbermann’s “Countdown.” I was suspicious at first, and he does tend to focus more on sports stories than is necessary (he ranted every day for a week when Buck O’Neill didn’t make the Negro League Hall of Fame) but overall, he’s one of the most honest newscasters going. I sometimes think he actually says what the Great Talking Heads of the past were thinking. I work at a radio station (we don’t have a news department, just entertainment radio) and the morning jocks were just flabbergasted that the morning newscasts today led with Couric being enticed away by CBS. As “The Coach” said, “On what planet is anything Katie Couric does the lead news story of the day!?” ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/128 "2006-04-05T17:35:28Z")
> [@brownie55](#): > > If you are using USA Today as an example of a newspaper it explains your claim that Today is a news show. Hey, I think _USA Today_ was referenced as a reputable newspaper in _The Da Vinci Code_, and that’s _literature_, man. ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/129 "2006-04-05T19:15:01Z")
> [@SHAKES](#): > > Besides. What’s with the animostity against people are aren’t so well read anyway? Doesn’t that kink of parallel racism? > > Just say’n. No it absolutely doesn’t. You have absolutely no control over your race or skin color. However, anybody can pick up a book, newpaper or magazine, read it and thereby educated themself. See the difference? ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/130 "2006-04-05T19:21:05Z")
> [@SHAKES](#): > > Besides. What’s with the animostity against people are aren’t so well read anyway? Doesn’t that kink of parallel racism? > > Just say’n. No it absolutely doesn’t. You have absolutely no control over your race or skin color. However, anybody can pick up a book, newpaper or magazine, read it and thereby educated themself. See the difference? ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/131 "2006-04-06T12:00:34Z")
> [@brownie55](#): > > If you are using USA Today as an example of a newspaper it explains your claim that Today is a news show. For starters, I wasn’t using Today to support my claim. I was just quoting the USA Today about it. But, whatever. . .if you actually want evidence of it, let’s check with. . .oh, I don’t know. . .lets just pick someone at random like. . . [THE NATIONAL TELEVISION ACADEMY](http://www.emmyonline.org/emmy/26news_noms_b.html) who nominated The Today Show for an Emmy for “OUTSTANDING FEATURE STORY IN A REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWSCAST”. And has nominated Katie Couric, individually, for awards for pieces she’s done in the past. You’re doing a heckuva job, **brownie**. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/132 "2006-04-06T15:23:35Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > What a retarded thread. > > It’s gotta be some kind of **Gaudere’s Law** where the person who starts the thread criticizing KC for being stupid (because she felt like singing “Don’t Cry for me Argentina” because SHE WAS ON A BALCONY OVER A PUBLIC SQUARE AND NOT ACTUALLY CONFUSING ROME WITH ARGENTINA) thinks there are asteroids in the Van Allen belt. I’m getting old and am allowed the occasional brain fart. You, on the other hand, seem to have a bad case o’ Katie worship. What is it that attracts you: the vapid look? The meaningless blather? The ridiculous black-rimmed glasses she wears in an attempt to look intelligent? Having a fan base doesn’t make you good at what you do. Examples abound. ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/133 "2006-04-06T15:54:39Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > For starters, I wasn’t using Today to support my claim. I was just quoting the USA Today about it. > > But, whatever. . .if you actually want evidence of it, let’s check with. . .oh, I don’t know. . .lets just pick someone at random like. . . [THE NATIONAL TELEVISION ACADEMY](http://www.emmyonline.org/emmy/26news_noms_b.html) who nominated The Today Show for an Emmy for “OUTSTANDING FEATURE STORY IN A REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWSCAST”. > > And has nominated Katie Couric, individually, for awards for pieces she’s done in the past. > > You’re doing a heckuva job, **brownie**. While I don’t understand your use of USA Today if not to support your claim, I will concede that my annoyance at Ms. Couric’s style may color my perception of her talent. CBS is paying her a hell of a lot more to read their news than they do me. If they want a perky news chipmunk, it is their decision. Time will tell if it is the right one. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/134 "2006-04-06T16:08:56Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Having a fan base doesn’t make you good at what you do. It does when “what you do” is “attract viewers”. Let’s not overestimate the anchor’s job. There are probably a million people who could read the news as well as any of the network anchors, and maintain order over the course of half an hour each day. The people who are GOOD at that job are the ones who do those pedestrian duties in such a way to get people to watch that station when they have perfectly reasonable alternatives. She’s proven she has that power in the morning. We’ll see if she takes it to the evening. Personally, I’m not sure that her brand of perky will play so well at 6:30 pm. I’ve always thought she sounded slightly phoney when she went into “gravitas mode” but we’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/135 "2006-04-06T16:20:25Z")
> [@brownie55](#): > > While I don’t understand your use of USA Today if not to support your claim Let’s start with this: I. Didn’t. Claim. Anything. The first mention I made of her being on a “news program” was a direct quote from USA Today. That’s why I put it in quotation marks and then provided a link. It’s THEIR claim, not mine. But, given that the National Television Academy supports their claim, I’ll support their claim, too. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/136 "2006-04-06T17:38:23Z")
One thing - in a thread from a while ago (I’m not looking for it, can’t remember what the thread was about originally), someone mentioned that they couldn’t understand why _Today_ was considered a news program, when it was just fluff pieces, cooking and decorating and movie stars shilling their new films. After some discussion, it was revealed that the poster’s NBC affiliate was not airing the first hour of the show, when they do the real news. They cut in after that, and just aired the last two hours, when it it mostly filler and fluff. Something to consider. _Today_ does do real news - maybe your affliate doesn’t show that part? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/137 "2006-04-06T17:50:04Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > I’ve always thought she sounded slightly phoney when she went into “gravitas mode” but we’ll see. Phony is the thing! She has struck me as being a major-league phony since the first time ever I saw her. There are other things I dislike about her as well, such as constantly interrupting guests to voice her own opinion and the blatant obsequiousness she displays when interviewing someone whose politics are in line with hers, not to mention that idiotic crooked grin that so many people find adorable and which she subsequently pastes on her face ad nauseum – still, it’s the phoniness that put me off her in the first place and it’s the phoniness that is my main objection to her now. Reports and comments by co-orkers ( 😃 ) regarding her behind-the-scenes Bitch-On-Wheelsiness have only served to confirm this impression. ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/138 "2006-04-06T17:55:24Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > One thing - in a thread from a while ago (I’m not looking for it, can’t remember what the thread was about originally), someone mentioned that they couldn’t understand why _Today_ was considered a news program, when it was just fluff pieces, cooking and decorating and movie stars shilling their new films. This very thread, actually (page 2). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/139 "2006-04-06T18:25:51Z")
I woke up last night, turned on CNN and saw a long retrospective on the life and career and contributions to journalism of Walter Cronkite, always referring to him in the past tense (not just his stories but in general… “Cronkite was beloved by people the world over”, etc.) and thought “OMG! Walter Cronkite died!” Then they went into his retirement and did the same thing for Rather (“Rather was beloved the world over… in the Rather house”) and thought “OMG! Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather died the same day!” It was, of course, a general “CBS News Anchors” special that culminated (like the first half of Revelations) in the appearance of Katie Couric. While I don’t think Katie Couric is the antiChrist herself there can be little doubt she will be his wet nurse. I just hope she doesn’t do it on live TV. Hmmm… if you wrote erotic internet fiction about Katie Couric having sex during a controversial TODAY SHOW segment, would that be “See colon slash”? ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2006, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255/140 "2006-04-06T18:32:31Z")
> [@Mal Adroit](#): > > This very thread, actually (page 2). Yes, I saw that, but it’s not the instance I was thinking of. The poster was whining that _Today_ was nothing but fluff and never had any ‘real’ news, and then he realized his affiliate wasn’t showing the first hour. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katie-couric-is-a-fucking-moron/343255.md?page=8)