But a conversation about misplaced, misguided condescension would not be complete without Katie Couric. Before I say what I want to say, this: I do not hate Katie Couric. In fact, when it comes to the anchors at the three major networks, I find her to be the least troubling. Since I watch Katie Couric more than the others, I am simply more familiar with her. And when it comes to shoveling forth non news from the dumbed down buffet, she never, ever fails to deliver.
That’s where Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnell come in. In a way, I think we should all send Katie Couric thank you notes because she may have single handedly derailed John McCain’s ascension to the presidency by asking Mama Grizzly about what she reads when she ain’t busy with her cubs. But this business with Christine O’Donnell’s inability to discuss recent supreme court cases during a debate with her opponent is a bit heavy handed, I think. Last week Katie Couric used the Christine O’Donnell story to replay an excerpt from her interview with the matriarch of the Tea Party. The link: Christine O’Donnell isn’t the only one who cannot discuss the doings at the court; her mentor had the same problem, and here is a clip from that interview in case your memory needs refreshing.
And here, in case you’re still reading, is my problem. If candidates are expected to be able to speak intelligently about what’s going on at the court, where are they expected to get that information? I’ll give you a hint: It’s not the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. I happen to think it would behoove a person running for Congress, which has to work with the court from time to time, to be informed, but in that department, Katie Couric needs to step down from the pedestal while she can still do so gracefully. Unless Jan Crawford comes on to sneer about military funerals or to explain how it’s really no biggie that corporations now have the same freedom of speech as individuals, Katie Couric has other, more important stuff to talk about, like Tiger Woods, her sappy everyday heroes serial, bed bugs, the miners in Chile, her staged interaction with a child in Haiti shortly after the earthquake – she actually touched him! – and, just last week, her sit down with Clint Eastwood, who has a new movie coming out and either just turned 80 or is about to.
