Katie Couric - The Girl Next Door

Do we miss Katie Couric already? Is she the 'girl next door' who has moved away? Not for me.
Ms. Couric has always traded on the girl next door identity. She could be silly, facetious , and vain without a pause. The girl next door is immune to any criticism because we don't take her seriously. She is a one-size-fits-all media personality. She belongs on the Today show. Her ingenuousness will not pass for journalism. Of course, journalists have disappeared from television giving way to entertainment. Katie might work. Perhaps we are seeing a further dumbing down of network news. The real broadcasters who have either died or retired or have been replaced by audience builders linger in our memory as whole people, not a type. Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite, Peter Jennings, and Tom Browkow had a formality of presentation that did not betray their preoccupation with ratings. They did not tweak their news with magazine stories. If they did report on something from the popular cutlure they treated it the same way as all other stories. No winking, smirks, maudlin gestures, tears. So the feminine may be asserting itself in broadcast journalism. The heart working its way into a cold, brutal, mean, greedy, vulgar society. If that is needed, well, I will seek hard news elsewhere.