For example, if you'd tuned into NBC's Today show the morning the highly popular host announced her departure to take the anchor chair at CBS, you could have gotten a revealing look at how Couric and the Today show maintained its ratings dominance among morning shows.
The first item was about a minor government official who'd been caught trying to seduce a young girl online. The second was about a kid testifying before Congress about his former career as an underaged online sex performer. And the third was about a date-rape drug. Child porn, child porn, and mickeys, all by a. So how did Couric hang on for so long at the Evening News? Never underestimate the value of a smart PR campaign.
It's appropriate that Howard Kurtz, the former Washington Post media critic, now at The Daily Beast , started this year's round of Couric departure news. He proffered a long, gingerly phrased piece in the WashPo , stressing her fundraising work, prominently noting the sexist coverage she was allegedly receiving he didn't cite any —and not mentioning anything about a plan for her to leave the Evening News.
Kurtz must have been mad as heck when he saw the Journal story that Wednesday. It reported that Couric probably wouldn't live out her contract, and might leave as soon as inauguration time.
Kurtz wrote a new Post story, and found his own sources to confirm the Journal's. The positive spin he'd delivered about Couric's ratings just a few days earlier now morphed into, "The executives involved recognize that a significant improvement in the ratings is unlikely. In the Los Angeles Times , for example, this piece selectively focused on a "five week period" to demonstrate that Couric's ratings had improved—and said that that was "on par" with what the newscast had earned the previous year.
What the paper didn't go out of its way to say was that there had just been a fairly high-profile election, which should have increased interest in Couric's program.
It didn't ask why Couric's ratings had risen only after the voting had ended. Similarly, keeping one's ratings "on par" with the previous year when this particular year had featured the most cacophonous election in a generation, complete with a historic financial meltdown, isn't much of an achievement. That was more than two years ago, and Couric's ratings have occasionally gone up but have mostly gone down, and always stayed in a distant third place. Ratings leader NBC as a rule of thumb has a viewership about 50 percent higher than Couric's.
In April , Couric's show had the network's worst week ever , with an average of 5. In June , the show had scorched that dismal benchmark. And a year after that it did it again, reaching an all-time low of 4. I think I did some really good work there. I wanted to grow. So I'm glad I did it. It didn't work out the way I had hoped it would," she added, noting that the gig didn't come without some struggles.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger? Couric also discussed the move during an appearance on Today Tuesday morning , telling former colleague Al Roker that there was a "real culture clash" when she joined CBS.
I don't think people internally really accepted me, and I thought we were much further along when it came to sexism. John McCain's running mate. We'll notify you here with news about. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Comments 0.
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