Couric: “It’s A Little Retro To Strictly Talk About Ratings”

By SteveK 

In a wide-ranging interview on The Daily Beast, Lloyd Grove talks to Katie Couric about Gov. Sarah Palin, Alex Rodriguez and more.

She describes how the evening news race has changed. “It’s a little retro to strictly talk about ratings, and I think you also have to talk about getting your product out there to the way people are watching, and that’s what I think about,” she said. “I think about, what about that person who isn’t in front of their television at 6:30 at night watching an evening newscast? How can we get some of our really strong content to them, so they can, even watch it, not always on CBSNews.com but in other venues as well.”

She also talks about scooping her former employer, NBC, for the Chesley Sullenberger interview, and NBC’s decision not to interview Sullenberger at all. “I think there was some anger there, and I’m not sure I would’ve done the same thing,” said Couric. “But I don’t work on the Today show, as much as I really like the people who are there, that was the decision they made.”

Advertisement

Click continued to see what she thought about being lied to by A-Rod about steroids…

“Yeah, I was disappointed. Obviously you want somebody who’s going to be forthcoming…I think he means well. I think he’s just a person who’s trying to find his way, and I think what he said really rang true about how he wished he had gone to college. It doesn’t excuse his behavior, and I’m not being an apologist for him, but I think he lacks a certain maturity and worldliness and kind of a core that only develops when you’ve had life experiences. Not to sound too psychoanalytical about it, I think some of his missteps have been directly connected to the fact that he doesn’t quite know who he truly is yet. That’s my drugstore psychiatry.”

Advertisement