Fervor

It is fun to trash people like Katie Couric, and there’s so much material to work with that not taking advantage of it seems almost irresponsible. Her appearance on her pal Charlie Rose’s show, for example, provided a month’s worth of easy pot shots. It was a half hour of two narcissistic buffoons, stroking each other when it couldn’t be avoided, but mostly stroking themselves. On that show, referring to her vaudevillian performance in Haiti after the earthquake, she proclaimed herself “an excellent journalist.”

Holy mother of God, I thought when I heard that.

But to be fair, of the three entertainers currently earning millions to host the evening news on the major networks, I think she’s the least troubling. In fact, every now and then I find myself thinking she might be pretty good.

One of those times was a few weeks ago, when she said something so eloquent it stopped me in my tracks. She was introducing one of her sappy, overwrought pieces about those ordinary people who do astoundingly extraordinary things because they’re just so darn selfless. I got up off the couch as it came on because even if I’m watching alone, which I usually am, I find those stories embarrassing. So I was standing in the kitchen, spooning the leftover rice into plastic containers, when good old Katie got to talking prior to the story. The term ‘hero’ is so overused, she said, that it has almost lost its meaning. I couldn’t believe my ears. I still can’t.