A polished, multi-millionaire, American woman in a gray pants suit, subtle makeup that highlights her blue eyes, and a winning smile is not an unusual sight in the executive lounge on the 17th floor of Tel Aviv’s Hilton Hotel. But this particular woman is none other than Katie Couric…
Before she interviewed Barack Obama in Jordan today, CBS’s Katie Couric was herself the subject of a news item in Israel. Yaron Frid of Haaretz talked with Couric about her time at the Today show and the move to CBS.
I have no doubt in my heart that I made the right move, accepting the CBS offer. I would have regretted it otherwise. It’s true that the pressure was immense and the expectations almost impossible. One person cannot perform such miracles and transform a whole network on his own.
Couric also opened up about what the expectation was, and what the reality has become:
It’s also true I’m not doing today exactly what I’ve been brought to do, and that my chance to express myself is fairly limited in the 22-minutes format, but I still enjoy my work, I think it’s important and fascinating, and do believe we can make a change with time, bit by bit.
Couric on “ratings terror”, “male dominance” and her Jewish roots, after the jump…
• Earlier: Couric: “No Plans to Part Company Any Time Soon…”
Unfortunately I have found out that many viewers are afraid of change. The glory days of TV news are over, and the media landscape has been dramatically changed. News is available now for everyone, everywhere, all the time, and everybody fights for the last pieces of the shrinking pie. The corporate pressure and the ratings terror are intensifying all the time, and the situation is not simple.
I find myself in the last bastion of male dominance, and realizing what Hillary Clinton might have realized not long ago: that sexism in the American society is more common than racism, and certainly more acceptable or forgivable. In any case, I think my post and Hillary’s race are important steps in the right direction.
Frid writes that this is Couric’s first visit to Israel, and she promises to return another time.
My mother is Jewish, but I’ve been raised as a Presbyterian. I’m interested in finding out more about these roots.