The three evening news anchors, CBS's Katie Couric, ABC's Charles Gibson and NBC's Brian Williams, appeared this morning on the three network morning shows to promote the September 5 special, "Stand Up to Cancer!" (and accompanying web site). The order for the appearances went CBS, NBC, ABC and was determined by what worked best logistically.

Harry Smith conducted the interview, and began by thanking Couric for her past coverage of cancer, which meant he now knows he has a clean colon.

CBS got the first chance to ask the network anchors about the Scott McClellan's allegation that the press was too easy on the government in the lead up to the Iraq War. "I think the media did a pretty good job of focusing and asking the questions," said Gibson.

Couric disagreed. "I think it is a very legitimate allegation," she said. "I think it's one of the most embarrassing chapters in American journalism."

She also put some of the blame at her former employer: "There was a sense of pressure from the corporations who own where we work and from the government itself to really squash any kind of dissent or any kind of questioning of it."

On a side note, the lower third identified Gibson as anchor of "World News Tonight" — no longer the name of the program.

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