When the folks at CBS shooed Katie Couric out the door one could almost hear the harrumph with which Scott Pelley was reinstalling the Old Regime of Ed Murrow. Unlike Couric Pelley wasnt debuting with celebrity interviews and updates on Tom Cruises baby. CBS is going back to biased Dan Rather basics treating Courics tenure as little more than a palate cleanser.
With Couric off the news grid in pursuit of cloning Oprah Winfreys success in feel-your-pain afternoon chat who will be the public face of soft and marshmallowy News Lite? Coincidentally NBCs Meredith Vieira retired from Today and NBC was contractually obligated to promote longtime morning news reader Ann Curry.
How light is Curry? Last October while narrating a story on how Russia implausibly unveiled a new set of inflatable weapons designed to fool spy satellites Curry added her own touch: Wish all weapons were like that.
Since joining the show in 1997 Curry has demonstrated that the network news types shouldnt be too fast to point and sneer at their own cartoons of Republican women like Sarah Palin as too dim to be a national leader. When political reporter Chuck Todd laid out the Super Tuesday primary map in 2008 Curry couldnt find the state of Illinois on a map. (She pointed to Minnesota.)
Sometimes political correctness is the issue not factual correctness.
In 2003 Curry questioned an author of a book urging families to learn more about the history of Thanksgiving and to appreciate being American. She insisted You know there are some American Indians who feel that Thanksgiving should be a day of mourning not a day of celebration because of what happened to their people.
In her interviews Curry has almost patented a sappy style of liberalism lite especially on the environment. In 2007 she promoted a Ben & Jerrys executive using a people-powered blender bike to make smoothies.
Curry added: You really care and have for years cared about global warming. As Curry pedaled the blender bike she exclaimed You see you can save the environment! It is possible!
Perhaps she could make enough electricity to power the Today show if she bicycles during all her interviews?
In 2006 she showed her hippie-friendly stripes by promoting a concert with activist Trudie Styler the wife of the rock star Sting. Styler said global warming was coming home to roost on a karmic level and said her concerts after-party would have a Woodstock theme singing 60s songs in 60s clothes and Curry begged Oh please give me an invitation to that one!
In 2002 Curry interviewed Jane Goodall the legendary chimpanzee-wrangler and sympathetically underlined Goodalls radical cant: You had once written quote I feel deep shame when I look into the eyes of my grandchildren and think how much damage has been done to the planet Earth since I was their age. Each of us must work as hard as we can now to heal the hurts and save what is left. Why do you think each one of us can make a difference given the enormity of the damage?
Curry meshes perfectly with the way NBC has promoted green initiatives such as Al Gores 2007 Live Earth concerts. In the midst of oodles of live coverage on NBC Curry urged Gore to run for president: After fueling this grassroots movement if you become convinced that without you there will not be the political will in the White House to fight global warming to the level that is required because the clock is ticking would you answer the call?
Curry does not bow and scrape before Republican officials. Back in early 2008 she scolded President Bush that the high cost of the Iraq War was bringing suffering to the American people. But when she chatted with then-presidential candidate Barack Obama weeks later after insisting he might want to pick Hillary Clinton as vice president she tossed softball questions like: Coffee or tea? ... Beatles or the Rolling Stones? ... Cubs or White Sox? ... Basketball or bowling? There was also Best thing your mom ever taught you?
In short its worrisome -- and predictable -- that NBC is now placing its high-profit Today franchise in the hands of a woman whose soft-news hero was Katie Couric and whose hard-news hero is Helen Thomas. Old TV habits die hard but I predict Today watchers will find Currys daily output is just too much syrupy bias to tolerate. They need fewer Twinkies and more fiber in their media diet.
Founder and President of the Media Research Center Brent Bozell runs the largest media watchdog organization in America.
When the folks at CBS shooed Katie Couric out the door one could almost hear the harrumph with which Scott Pelley was reinstalling the Old Regime of Ed Murrow. Unlike Couric Pelley wasnt debuting with celebrity interviews and updates on Tom Cruises baby. CBS is going back to biased Dan Rather basics treating Courics tenure as little more than a palate cleanser.
With Couric off the news grid in pursuit of cloning Oprah Winfreys success in feel-your-pain afternoon chat who will be the public face of soft and marshmallowy News Lite? Coincidentally NBCs Meredith Vieira retired from Today and NBC was contractually obligated to promote longtime morning news reader Ann Curry.
How light is Curry? Last October while narrating a story on how Russia implausibly unveiled a new set of inflatable weapons designed to fool spy satellites Curry added her own touch: Wish all weapons were like that.
Since joining the show in 1997 Curry has demonstrated that the network news types shouldnt be too fast to point and sneer at their own cartoons of Republican women like Sarah Palin as too dim to be a national leader. When political reporter Chuck Todd laid out the Super Tuesday primary map in 2008 Curry couldnt find the state of Illinois on a map. (She pointed to Minnesota.)
Sometimes political correctness is the issue not factual correctness.
In 2003 Curry questioned an author of a book urging families to learn more about the history of Thanksgiving and to appreciate being American. She insisted You know there are some American Indians who feel that Thanksgiving should be a day of mourning not a day of celebration because of what happened to their people.
In her interviews Curry has almost patented a sappy style of liberalism lite especially on the environment. In 2007 she promoted a Ben & Jerrys executive using a people-powered blender bike to make smoothies.
Curry added: You really care and have for years cared about global warming. As Curry pedaled the blender bike she exclaimed You see you can save the environment! It is possible!
Perhaps she could make enough electricity to power the Today show if she bicycles during all her interviews?
In 2006 she showed her hippie-friendly stripes by promoting a concert with activist Trudie Styler the wife of the rock star Sting. Styler said global warming was coming home to roost on a karmic level and said her concerts after-party would have a Woodstock theme singing 60s songs in 60s clothes and Curry begged Oh please give me an invitation to that one!
In 2002 Curry interviewed Jane Goodall the legendary chimpanzee-wrangler and sympathetically underlined Goodalls radical cant: You had once written quote I feel deep shame when I look into the eyes of my grandchildren and think how much damage has been done to the planet Earth since I was their age. Each of us must work as hard as we can now to heal the hurts and save what is left. Why do you think each one of us can make a difference given the enormity of the damage?
Curry meshes perfectly with the way NBC has promoted green initiatives such as Al Gores 2007 Live Earth concerts. In the midst of oodles of live coverage on NBC Curry urged Gore to run for president: After fueling this grassroots movement if you become convinced that without you there will not be the political will in the White House to fight global warming to the level that is required because the clock is ticking would you answer the call?
Curry does not bow and scrape before Republican officials. Back in early 2008 she scolded President Bush that the high cost of the Iraq War was bringing suffering to the American people. But when she chatted with then-presidential candidate Barack Obama weeks later after insisting he might want to pick Hillary Clinton as vice president she tossed softball questions like: Coffee or tea? ... Beatles or the Rolling Stones? ... Cubs or White Sox? ... Basketball or bowling? There was also Best thing your mom ever taught you?
In short its worrisome -- and predictable -- that NBC is now placing its high-profit Today franchise in the hands of a woman whose soft-news hero was Katie Couric and whose hard-news hero is Helen Thomas. Old TV habits die hard but I predict Today watchers will find Currys daily output is just too much syrupy bias to tolerate. They need fewer Twinkies and more fiber in their media diet.
Founder and President of the Media Research Center Brent Bozell runs the largest media watchdog organization in America.
