Too bad her boss’s StupidDar didn’t go off during her job interview.
I remember an interview after the Caldecott Tunnel fire in Berkely, back in the 80’s. A tanker truck jackknifed in the bay end of the tunnel and began spilling diesel fuel, which got blown into the tunnel until the proper air-fuel mixture was reached to get ignited by the burning truck.
While that was happening, cars continued to follow the truck into the tunnel and stopped when they got to the accident. Some people got out to try and figure out what was going on. One man got out of his car, left his mom behind, and ended up outside the tunnel when it turned into a giant rocket motor…
He was being interviewed while the fires were still burning, and the interviewer asked, “Knowing what you know now, would you have done anything different?”
He just stared at her for about five seconds, and then he said, “Well, actually, I don’t think I would have left my mom in there to die.” And stared at her some more, with the little gears in his brain sending out messages like “if you stuff that microphone up her ass right now, sideways, there is not a court in the land that would convict you…”
Well, considering her audience, it’s not that far of a drop.
I mean, c’mon, the morons stand outside the studio all morning long in all kinds of weather just so they can tell their friends they were on The Today Show.
If you don’t want her Sampiro, I’ll take her off your hands. I got something to keep her quiet.
The morning of September 11, 2001 was when I officially became a member of the “I Can’t Stand Katie Couric” club, although I had been going to meetings for years.
I believe the first plane had already slammed into one of the towers, and we all watched with disbelief as the second tower was hit. Katie says to whomever was reporting details, “Do you think it’s some kind of navigational malfunction?”
And Matt Lauer isn’t much better either, by the way.
I’m not comparing Katie to Matt. My dislike of Katie stands on its own feet. I just dislike matt in a different way.
I think he’s a better interviewer by far, but I just have a general dislike for most morning show anchors. How can one go from reporting on widespread suffering in one minute to giddily critiqueing (sp?) the latest fall fashions in the next minute? It reminds me of Ellen Degeneres’s stand up routine where she imitates newscasters and the wide range of emotions they have to go through to report the news:
[somber tone]And today, 300 people were killed when a bell tower collapsed during an outdoor celebration[/somber tone]
[happy tone]In other news, firefighters rescued a frightened little kitten from a neighborhood tree today![/happy tone]
another thing that really bothers me about Katie is how prudish she gets when certain topics are discussed. She tends to get all giddy and school-girlish when someone mentions a word she finds slightly offensive. Like “sex”.
I was surprised right out of my chair when she did that special on teen sex. She managed to say the word 20,000 times without blushing, yet she can’t keep from squirming when someone makes an off-color joke during the Witty Banter[sup]tm[/sup] segment of the Today show.
BTW, my husband thinks she is just the greatest person in the world. Newsflash! Just because someone has a megawatt smile and great legs doesn’t mean she doesn’t bathe in the blood of virgins in her free time.
He also recently asked Pam if her breasts were real.
She replied in the affirmative. I mean, what else could she say?
(For those who couldn’t care less about Pam… she quite famously has had god knows how much plastic surgery, not limited to maybe two weeks of solid news about the time she took her implants out. They’re back in, by the way, but even when they came out… they weren’t real anymore.)
(I like Pam. She’s fairly darn smart. And a great interview.)
On-air interviewing is a lost art. I hate hate hate it when the interviewer’s expected answer is included in the question. “How shocked were you when you saw the devestation?” is the WRONG FUCKING QUESTION to be asking. “What was your reaction when you saw the devestation?” is a legitimate question, but it should come at the end of the interview after more pertinent questions like “What have you seen? How did you survive? What are you hearing from other people there?” Don’t tell the subject of your interview what his or her answer will be.
"How shocked were you?
“Well, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being nonplussed and 10 being the Second Coming, I’d say I was at about a SHUT THE FUCK UP, KATIE! That’s just an estimate, of course, as I lost the charger to my shock-o-meter WHEN ALL OF MY BELONGINGS WERE DESTROYED YOU ANDROID BITCH!”
Well, I can. And every chance I get, I like to remind people that he was a VH1 VJ, introducing Rick Astley videos back in the 80s along with Rosie O’Donnell. Ha!
At least Kurt Loder knows his place. 73 years old and still on MTV. Ya gotta admire his sticktoitiveness or his stayputitiveness.
What I hate about all of the talking head shows, be they morning or otherwise, is that instead of interviews, they ask questions based on the answers that they want.
Instead of asking, “What did you find when you got to the scene?”, Matt/Katie will say, “Were you horrified at all the dead bodies/babies on spikes/crying relavtives/whatever?”.
And if they can make someone cry, then all the better.
I know this isn’t about Ann Curry, but I hate her almost as much. She’s so stiff and phony, especially when she’s interviewing. Any interview on Today is cringe-inducing, but hers are the most uncomfortable.
I joined the club when she single handedly ruined the Olympics for me. I really don’t get why the network never hired an actual literate person to coach her through what her cue cards said.
I visited the Museum of TV and Radio in Los Angeles about a month ago. One of the selections I viewed was 20 minutes of a “Today” show from early 1959.
The scary fact was, there were just as many people hanging around the studio waiting for the cameras to pan on them back then as there are now.
To be realistic though (and I’m deducing this from context, as I don’t get to see two of these and Tom Cruise is just an actor as far as I’m concerned, lucky me), you’d likely be rewarded with an expression that, roughly translated, meant “Could you possibly narrow it down a little?”.
Assuming any of them had the first idea they’d done or said anything wrong, of course.
Apart from that, I like your pitch. A three-word catchphrase but almost infinite variety in tone and phrasing according to just how WTF the guest has been that day/week/ever. When can you interview?
I met an NBC camera man, and asked him who had met. He said he’d worked with Katie and she was “the biggest bitch I’ve ever met.” Apparently the Ms. Cutseysweetnessandlite deal is a huge act, and she is impossible in real life.
I am inclined to disagree- just a smidge. I don’t like Lauer, but I don’t hate him. Why? Because he has been known to give Katie the, “Bitch, seriously. No, SERIOUSLY what the fuck is wrong with you?” look on occasion.
Yes. In the courtroom, don’t they call this a leading question?
Ahh! Ann Curry is a TRAIN WRECK! As **Nutty Bunny ** said, not to hijack such a wonderfully cathartic Katie bash, but that raven-haired ding dong shouldn’t be allowed anywhere *near * an interview. She so completely jettisons any journalistic objectivity with her emotional delivery that it’s embarrassing to listen to her! What’s sad is she seems to be a pleasant enough person, and is almost fine on the fluffy stuff, but *oi, * talking to a politician or anyone coming even vaguely under fire? The woman makes my shorts bunch up.
