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Friday, September 26, 2008

Did Katie Couric Take Away Gov. Palin's Title?


Katie Couric Should know all about going into a new job when everyone thinks you are under-qualified (but in her case she proved the pundits correct). If you watched her interview with Governor Palin you will find something missing, the Governor's Title. You see, every time the network put up a slide at the bottom of the screen identifying who was being interviewed Ms. Palin's Governor title was missing. According to the American Spectator, the "Governor" was removed on the orders of Ms Couric:

Couric Diminishes Gov. Palin
By The Prowler Published 9/26/2008 12:08:10 AM

CBS New anchor Katie Couric ordered staff to drop all references to "Governor" or "Gov." from her interview with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. When a staff member pointed out that in other venues, Couric and CBS News had referred to Governor Palin's opponent, Joe Biden, using his title of "Senator" or the abbreviation, Couric, according to a CBS News editorial aide, sought approval from CBS News management to drop the "Governor" reference during her broadcast interview with Palin that began on Wednesday night.

"It's not true," said another CBS News source. "We treat everyone the same."

But, in fact, that's not the case: as late as September 22, CBS News and Couric -- even on the CBS website -- used Biden's honorific. Here is an excerpt from the transcript of a Couric interview with "Sen." Biden:

Katie Couric: How is it preparing for the debates?

Sen. Joe Biden: Well, it's kind of hard to prepare because I don't know what she thinks. There's been no -- I don't know a lot about her, so I have to assume for purposes of the debate that she agrees with John on everything.

Now compare that the transcript of the "Palin" interview:

Couric: Why do you say that? Why are they waiting for John McCain and not Barack Obama?

Palin: He's got the track record of the leadership qualities and the pragmatism that's needed at a crisis time like this.

In fact, at no point during the broadcast interview does Couric refer to the GOP vice presidential nominee as "Governor."

Couric is not the only member of the broadcast news corps who has sought to diminish Palin's professional position, though she may be the most high profile. Producers and editorial staff at both NBC and ABC report that fellow staffers have openly ridiculed Palin, her professional and personal background and her family during production meetings, in the editing bays during video editing for nightly news stories, and while covering Palin at political events.

Ultimately the higher ups at CBS News agreed, saying that wherever possible, the reference to "Governor" should be struck from graphics, scripts and published transcripts. In fact, based on perusal of the CBS website, between video and print, there is only one reference to Palin as Governor, and that is buried in a subhead on the splash page of the interview transcript.

2 comments:

vrajavala said...

Katie is just another one of the ugly step sister scenario that has been happening since McCain announced Gov Palin's nomination.
the Cinderella story exists in all societies and is based on fact.
Madeline albright sasy that there is a special place in Hel for Women who attack other women's rise to fame.

Unknown said...

Everyone is playing these games. Why would John McCain not look at Senator Obama last night? The rudeness of John McCain is perhaps the same kind of mean spirited rudeness that is being dealt to Gov. Palin. Barack is a man of great character and - I wish the same could be said of the others I see so often these days on TV. I hope we have the opportunity to have him be our President and the representative of the free world. I'm sorry for Gov. Palin that she is not prepared and is being treated rudely. No call for that.
I'm sorry for McCain that he does not have the stability of temperment and stability of character to be a good president. He just doesn't.