Alas, Poor Couric
But pity her not.
By Joe Hagan
....Couric admits that her original version of the show had problems. “Perhaps some of the pieces were too long, they weren’t as compelling. ‘FreeSpeech’—maybe every night it didn’t hold up.” But she still believes in what they were trying to achieve. “People can get the news anywhere, they don’t have to wait for the television. Take, say, up-armored vehicles: one vehicle that wasn’t up-armored, the ramifications of that on a soldier from Dallas. That’s a humanistic illustration of a news-making story.”
Couric seems determined not to let anyone see her suffer, but according to several people familiar with the situation, she is privately frustrated (“Going through hell,” says one producer) and moody about the ratings. The stress has caused her to blow up at her staff for small infractions on the set. During the tuberculosis story in June, Couric got angry with news editor Jerry Cipriano for using a word she detested—“sputum”—and the staff grew tense when she began slapping him “over and over and over again” on the arm, according to a source familiar with the scene. It had seemed like a joke at first, but it quickly became clear that she wasn’t kidding.
“I sort of slapped him around,” Couric admits. “I got mad at him and said, ‘You can’t do this to me. You have to tell me when you’re going to use a word like that.’ I was aggravated, there’s no question about that.” But she says she has a good relationship with Cipriano. “We did ban the word sputum from all future broadcasts. It became kind of a joke.”
Couric is looking to the 2008 election cycle as an opportunity to build her reputation as the network’s authoritative voice. She’ll be moderating a presidential debate in December in Los Angeles, and CBS has hired Washington correspondent Jeff Greenfield from CNN as a familiar face who can serve in a veteran Tim Russert–type role when she’s analyzing the race. (In addition, she’ll be broadcasting alongside Schieffer, who will remain the host of Face the Nation through 2008, which should make for interesting viewing.) “She’ll get to prove her mettle,” says (Rick) Kaplan. “That’s where she’ll prove all the things she can do, and, boy, do I like our chances.”
But Couric is realistic enough to imagine that it might not work out in the end. “If it turns out it wasn’t a perfect fit,” she says, “then, you know, I’ll do something else that’s really exciting and fulfilling for me.”...
http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Katie+Couric+Learns+What+Happens+When+Great+Expectations+Go+Unmet+--+New+York+Magazine&expire=&urlID=22974198&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnymag.com%2Fnews%2Ffeatures%2F34452%2F&partnerID=73272***
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UPDATE: Monday, Jul 09
Does Couric Read Her Scripts?
Katie Couric should start reading her scripts before 6:30pm.
On June 4, Couric began slapping news editor Jerry Cipriano "over and over and over again" on the arm because the word sputum was included in her CBS Evening News script, Joe Hagan reports.
Couric apparently didn't notice the word in her script until she was reading it off the teleprompter. Here's video of the broadcast. After the first commercial break, Couric turns to the story of Andrew Speaker's drug-resistant tuberculosis.
(Note: Link to CBS video:
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2884834n)
"Doctors at a Denver hospital said today his sputum has tested negative twice for TB bacteria," Couric read, stumbling over the word sputum.
A CBS insider says "Katie does not read her news copy until right before the air, like around 6:20. Then she expects all of her underlings to jump through hoops and change things on the fly."
The insider says Cipriano is getting a lot of e-mails about the now-infamous incident.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/cbs/does_couric_read_her_scripts_62561.asp
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