Did Katie Couric Slap A Staffer?

By FishbowlNY on July 9, 2007 12:51 PM

New York‘s 6,000-word Katie Couric profile dropped this morning. Joe Hagan covered the bases: the drop in ratings; the claims of fluff content (Couric on Suri Cruise: “Yessiree, she does exist!”); the allegations of sexism. But let’s get to the salient points of the article:

Why did Leslie Moonves offer Couric the job? Because he “wanted to attract new audiences to the evening news by making it more like entertainment, envisioning a broadcast that was somewhere in between The Naked News, a British TV show in which beautiful women undress as they read the headlines, and ‘two boring people behind a desk.’”
Couric’s hairdresser, Mela Murphy, told a deputy assignment editor at CBS News’ foreign desk that Couric’s producers were “lucky to have their jobs” after Murphy wasn’t given first-class plane tickets with Couric to work on-site in Jordan.
Couric’s salary? Somewhere between $15 million and $22 million. Staffers and producers grouse they aren’t getting raises because Couric’s pay eats up too much of the Evening News‘ budget.
CBS News staff has been butting heads with Couric and blocking her from high profile interviews and enterprise stories: Trips to Iraq and Afghanistan were turned down; when Elizabeth Edwards personally requested Couric interview her after she discovered her cancer returned, CBS initially blocked it because they thought “the news value had passed.”
That story the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Gail Shister broke claiming CBS was going to let Couric go after the 2008 elections? It’s implied Couric thinks Bob Schieffer was Shister’s source.
Dan Rather: Moonves believes “the audience is redneck.”

Oh, and Couric once assaulted a staffer:

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.

With Couric Stuck In Third, CBS Swaps Executive Producers

CBS: Couric Story ‘Unfounded, Gratuitous, Utterly Malicious’