Katie In 7: Andersen Says Her Lack Of Gravitas “Makes Her Special”

Kurt Andersen thinks says CBS’s decision to make Katie Couric the face of the network is a “very smart, potentially even visionary choice.” He writes:

“Not because she’s the first woman to anchor a network newscast alone — although since the news ‘evening’ is really late afternoon, a daypart dominated by female viewers, the CBS Evening News With Katie Couric will surely attract women who don’t currently watch any nightly news show. No, the real brilliance — in this age of The Daily Show — is that she’s the first network anchor to have a quick, smart, mischievous sense of humor as a major part of her public persona. She has all the serious-news experience the job requires, but it’s her lack of old-fashioned TV-news ‘gravitas’ — that perpetual default to careful, po-faced grown-up solemnity that any moron can fake — which makes her special…”