Kurt Andersen thinks says CBS's decision to make Katie Couric the face of the network is a "very smart, potentially even visionary choice." He writes:

"Not because she's the first woman to anchor a network newscast alone -- although since the news 'evening' is really late afternoon, a daypart dominated by female viewers, the CBS Evening News With Katie Couric will surely attract women who don't currently watch any nightly news show. No, the real brilliance -- in this age of The Daily Show -- is that she's the first network anchor to have a quick, smart, mischievous sense of humor as a major part of her public persona. She has all the serious-news experience the job requires, but it's her lack of old-fashioned TV-news 'gravitas' -- that perpetual default to careful, po-faced grown-up solemnity that any moron can fake -- which makes her special..."