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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/orl-couric28_tvcm122804dec28,0,4435961.story?coll=orl-home-entlife

Katie Couric Could Anchor About-face In News Tradition

By Hal Boedeker | Sentinel Television Critic
Posted December 28, 2004

The day after Dan Rather announced he was retiring from the CBS Evening News, NBC's Katie Couric made telling remarks during a Today interview.

"Whoever anchors those newscasts is really the face of the entire network news division," Couric said. "Why is it always white guys we're talking about?"

She has a point: It's high time for a woman to fly solo as anchor on a network evening newscast. And Couric would be the logical choice.

The latest Rather-replacement speculation, promoted by Broadcasting & Cable magazine, is that Viacom Co-President Les Moonves, who oversees CBS, will court Couric.

Neither CBS nor NBC is commenting. Couric is the newest candidate to be floated in the press after ABC's Diane Sawyer, NBC's Tim Russert and Couric's Today colleague Matt Lauer. CBS' John Roberts and Scott Pelley also have been mentioned in a guessing game that could continue for months.

As for Couric, it seems highly unlikely that she would leave her cozy perch at top-rated Today and part with supportive boss Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group.

And yet if Couric wants a challenge, she couldn't find a bigger one than trying to turn around the No. 3 CBS Evening News.

Being the face of CBS News would carry bigger incentives to jump to a rival network. The new anchor will follow in Walter Cronkite's footsteps, help guide coverage and land choice prime-time assignments. Couric could appear on 60 Minutes or produce specials of her choosing, as NBC's Tom Brokaw and ABC's Peter Jennings have done.

Above all, she would make broadcasting history by going it alone. The two previous female anchors, ABC's Barbara Walters and CBS' Connie Chung, shared the anchor desk with Harry Reasoner and Rather, respectively.

Networks need to get over a reluctance to appoint female anchors because Walters and Chung didn't succeed, says Joe Angotti, chairman of the broadcast program at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

"Women anchors are now so common on cable shows that I think the whole perception of viewers has changed," Angotti says. He describes the old view as "it's serious business and I want to hear it from a serious male father figure."

By moving to CBS, Couric could smash that patriarchal setup, bring new attention to evening news and appeal to somewhat younger viewers. She turns 48 next month and would represent a generational shift after Rather, who is 73, steps down in March.

"If she wanted to do it, she's got the clout to get the deal she wants," says analyst Andrew Tyndall. "But she's going from highly paid anchor in the No. 1 news division to No. 3 -- I don't know if that's a promotion. I don't know if it's a step up professionally."

But it would be a chance for Couric to reinvent herself into a more serious journalist. Women in morning news programs, such as Couric and Sawyer, have been cast in softer roles, says Jill Geisler, head of the management program at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank in St. Petersburg.

"Dan Rather hasn't been part of a live wedding on the CBS Evening News, Dan Rather doesn't dress up in costumes on Halloween," Geisler says.

But she adds that viewers might accept Couric as an evening anchor because they could see her as less biased and more human.

"Whoever is put in that position, male or female, will need to work very hard to build a constituency," Geisler says. "The person replacing Rather has to be credible, trustworthy and likable."

Couric displays those qualities every morning, and she's at her best in the first half-hour of Today, which contains the most hard news.

On Today, the day after Rather announced he would leave the CBS Evening News, Couric noted: "They haven't let a woman do it by herself."

She looms the obvious choice to overhaul that tradition.
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Quote:"But she adds that viewers might accept Couric as
an evening anchor because they could see her as less biased and
more human."

LOL, that's the funniest thing I've heard today!!
Why, she's so unbiased she couldn't contain her tears when
Al Gore lost the election!! The woman is a total TWIT with a brain
the size of a pea.
I hope they make this disasterous move. Perky Katie will take
them right down the drain. BYE BYE, cBS!!!

[gmez2001]

Good-
Maybe she'll be anchoring when we run MSM out of town.
_________________
Tin Can Gunline Vietnam
2nd generation Navy

[Doc Farmer]

Couric as anchor?

Frankly, they'd be better off hiring Baghdad Bob...
_________________

Fat, Bald and Ugly - And PROUD Of It!

[wwIIvetsdaughter]

Should perky Katie be "allowed" to fill Mr. Notcredible's seat, I predict a sudden rise in dumb blonde jokes and in FoxNews' ratings. Funny, the MSM which prides itself on being so "progressive", is way way behind that evil, diabolical, mean old Republican George W. Bush when it comes to placing women and "people of diversity" in key positions.

[DLI78]

Frankly, it doesn't matter who is the new anchor, now that Rather has revealed SeeBS as an on-air affiliate of the National Enquirer.

"Coming up, an interview with the two-headed baby Elvis fathered with an alien from Mars. And you'll want to stay tuned for more alarming revelations about President Bush's national guard service from the mid-shift messhall cook who fed him."

Hmmm. Maybe Baghdad Bob would have more credibility.
_________________
DLI 78
Army Linguist
1978-1986

[srmorton]

WWIIvetsdaughter took the words right out of my mouth. "Perky
Katie" would be a disaster. That CBS thinks she would be the best
person to replace Rather just shows how out of touch they are with
mainstream America. BTW, I am also a USN WWII vet's daughter
and my husband is the son of a disabled WWII vet (US Army). His
father later had to have both legs amputated as a result of gangrene
which developed from shrapnel wounds he received during the war.
_________________
Susan R. Morton

[gmez2001]

[rparrott21]

If that were to happen Hilliary would have her mouthpiece on CBS...