Couric is an embarrassment to journalism (Plame Interview)

[BOSSHOG]

Did all she could to placate bush and cheney by thinking she was asking the "tough" questions. Plame kicked her ass all over 60 minutes last night with relevant data and honesty.

Plame and Wilson took exception to the right wing punks going after his family by saying no one went after rove's family, no one went after cheney's family. To wit, the brilliant couric said, yeah but rove's wife is not a CIA agent. Wilson asked, how do you know? So in couric's journalistic brain, if a hero who happens to be an enemy of george bush because he tells the truth, is married to a hero who happens to be an undercover CIA operative, she is fair game. CBS must be very proud.

[Olney Blue]

1. Valerie and Joe handled themselves brilliantly.

[Ian David]

2. KKKatie Couric puts a pretty face on evil. n/t

[Subdivisions]

5. Katie Couric is NOT pretty. n/t

[Ian David]

22. You're right. Matt Lauer is prettier. n/t

[midnight]

3. "How do you know"? Indeed. What a perfect response.

[AndyA]

4. Katie Couric has never been anything but an embarrassment to journalism.

This interview did nothing to change that, only reinforce that Couric is a right wing enabler, confronting fact with spin and logic with the illogical.

Wilson and Plame could have picked a better place and person for an interview, although I understand this was done as part of the book deal. Bad choice.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

6. I don't know if you're aware of it but there are parts of the interview that were not

aired concerning Valerie's work on Iran. It is available at the 60 minutes site but how many people will go there?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=2104425

[Heidi]

7. I've never thought of her as a journalist.

She worked as a reporter from 1984-1989. The rest of her career has been as an anchor, host and news reader. Seems to me that calling her a journalist (although she did win an Emmy for her reporting during her five-year career as a journalist) is an insult to real journalists who don't have producers and other helpers propping them up.

[mwb970]

9. You're right. Couric is by no stretch a "journalist".

She puts on makeup and reads the news into a camera. As an interviewer, she parrots bush talking points. That is not journalism, it's something else.

[spanone]

13. she was at best an A.M. personality....cute & perky

[izquierdista]

14. She is a fine journalist

As long as the subject is fall fashions and quinceranas.

[SteppingRazor]

25. All broadcast journalists have producers, for what it's worth.

Even a guy who does nothing but field reporting still has a team with him and a producer(s) back at base.

[BridgeTheGap]

8. MSM - supporting the breakdown in law & order

Complicit in allowing these murderers, liars and crooks operate outside the law.

[KharmaTrain]

10. Couric's On Her Last Legs

CBS won't go down without a "fight"...trying to prove that they didn't throw all that money away on an empty "suit" (or would "pantssuit" fit better here?). They've been working hard on getting Ms. Perky some "street cred" and failing miserably.

The biggest problem with Couric is one CBS has tried, but can't buy away...people have her stereotypes from years on Today...and the silly stuff, rather than serious journalism. She never worked a foreign beat like a Christianne Armanpour or Lara Logan or was noted for her "credibility" like a Judy Woodruff or Diane Sawyer have gained. She's pictured by many doing a cooking segment rather than being a serious interviewer/journalist. This must be driving CBS nuts.

The fact she's so vapid as a "reporter" (those Iraq reports were a disaster) and "serious journalist" is not only drawing her fire from right and left, but also where it counts the most...ratings. Rumor has it Shieffer's warming up again in the bullpen, but CBS as the terrible managers they are, are leaving Couric in there since they paid for her and damn it if it's not gonna work.

[KharmaTrain]

11. Deleted

[burythehatchet]

12. Katie must cease the visual examinations of her colon n/t

[CTyankee]

17. I think that was a good thing. If everyone had a colonoscopy in a timely manner

there would never be a case of colon cancer. That's pretty astounding, so every little bit of publicity does help. I don't think she does this as a regular thing on TV though...

[burythehatchet]

23. Point being, her head is up her ass.

[CTyankee]

26. I don't care to even watch her actually...n/t

[Christian30]

15. I was irritated

from the moment I saw that she was the interviewer. I think Valerie Plame is an amazing woman and I hope she runs for office someday. She is poised, smart, and beautiful. I think we've lost a valuable asset in not having this woman working for the American people because, unlike the right-wing tools in DC, she actually tried to keep us safe.

[CTyankee]

18. Valerie was incredibly forceful in that interview. Katie was a near nobody.

Valerie's presentation was unerringly sincere and the truth shined through vividly. I think she flattened Katie right off the bat.

[MelissaB]

16. Is the video up for this anywhere?

[Eurobabe]

19. Katie Couric is a Bush shill

and she's really become a hag. JMHO.

[MonkeyFunk]

20. I'll take the minority stand...

it was a good interview. Plame was given the chance to respond to her critics and get her message out there.

You can't look at an individual question and presume the questioner is biased in a particular way. ANY interviewer would have to ask about partisanship. A question is not an accusation.

The end result, all the questions, combined with editing, allowed Plame to make a very strong case, and the administration came off looking very bad.

[BOSSHOG]

24. Good Point

and well made. Plame nicely answered the partisanship question. The "rove's wife is not a CIA operative" statement was obviously based in ignorance. As Mr Wilson aptly asked, how do you know? Isn't the point not to know who is covert? At least in a rational world. My neighbor could be an undercover spy of some sort and he is doing a great job of it because no one knows it. And couric's inference as I mentioned above was that if your spouse is a spy (couric assumption that everyone knows he/she is a spy) then he/she is fair game for the bush white house. That's real patriotic, since God knows how much damage was done by bush's incredible pettiness.

I do appreciate your post.

[papau]

21. Couric teed up Cheney "tough" questions for Plame to hit out of the park - either

she is brilliant and on our side - or a very bad journalist with hopes of a job with Fox.

I think perhaps the former, but it is early in her 60 minutes career.