Katie Couric: ‘Anchormom’

Via CNN’s Reliable Sources comes a new label for Katie Couric to ultimately fend off:

GAIL SHISTER: She’s gotten so much publicity and it’s so clear that CBS is making her the center of their solar system, that I think there’s some envy there. And she’s under the microscope partly because CBS put her there, with this extraordinary promotional campaign. And some of the shots, I think, are fair, some are unfair. Her ratings are not strong; her ratings in November, during the sweeps, were actually lower than what Bob Schieffer had gotten a year before. So CBS has got to be concerned. The party line there has always been, This is a marathon, not a sprint, but they have to be worried.

I should bring something up that David just said — he referred to Katie as “an unhappy mom,” and that was very interesting, what you said, David, because she has been positioned as “the mom,” when in fact, Brian Williams is a dad, and Charlie Gibson is a dad and a grandfather. So-

DAVID ZURAWIK: I agree. That’s one of the mistakes they made. That’s what I meant when I said, they made a few mistakes.

HOWARD KURTZ: Wait a minute! Wait a minute! She IS a mom, she talks about her family, she shares more of herself, I think, than we’re used to at night. Why is that a bad thing?

ZURAWIK: That’s an artificial persona that they’ve crafted. They don’t have to emphasize-

KURTZ: But why do you say it’s a bad thing?

ZURAWIK: … she doesn’t have to emphasize …

KURTZ: Why do you say it’s artificial?

ZURAWIK: I’m saying, they could emphasize other aspects of her. CBS chose to make her “anchormom,” and that was a bad decision.

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