Couric is being paid - whether too much so is something I'll leave up to the reader to decide - to look into a camera and report the news, and that's all. She's not even being a real on-the-beat reporter at that, even. What she will start doing tonight is something that literally anyone could do. I mean, how much talent does it take to read a teleprompter?
Don't take this to mean that I wish Couric anything but the best in her new job. But let's be realistic: in a sane world this would be a minor transition at most. As it is, Couric's prominence tonight is symptomatic of a country obsessed with the cult of celebrity, where everyone is trying to be famous for the sake of being famous. What is sorely lacking as a result is the quality of simple character. Which I hope it is that Couric is bringing to the news desk, instead of merely being a pretty face that CBS has lured in the hopes of raking in higher ratings.
I guess what I'm really trying to ask is: are there any real people of character left in this country... or have we all become empty suits waiting to be held up by sudden fame?
(Most of this country's leaders are the latter, parse that as you will.)
2 comments:
She lost me when she was sent to cover the Middle East, ever so briefly, and agreed to cover herself a la Muslim women to do a puff piece on a town market.
At the same time, she and her genial co-horts, truly more entertainers than journalists, were being referred to by their PR firm as "America's first family."
How much respect has she shown Laura Bush, whose condemnation of women's rights abuses in the Middle East is well-known? Zip. Zeh-ro. Nada.
She is the public face of the agenda-driven media, is Ms. Couric.
If Andy Warhol could see the cult of fame, he may never have uttered his famous words.
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