Liberal TV icon fumes against her former employer CBS for making shocking ‘out of touch’ decision
Katie Couric has accused her former employer CBS of “losing touch with reality” after the network replaced Norah O’Donnell with two male anchors.
The longtime Today host, who also anchored CBS Evening News from 2006 to 2011, brought the complaint to attention in a scathing op-ed for The New York Times.
The Democrat called the decision “odd,” saying it meant that the millions of Americans who watch the program every day would now see “two men” instead of O’Donnell.
Last month, the equally liberal news anchor announced she would step down to make way for John Dickerson of the Daily Report and Maurice DuBois of CBS New York, who are now joining the news desk.
Couric, in turn, called the reshuffle “disappointing,” while citing the current presidential election climate as a reason.
Katie Couric has accused her former employer CBS of becoming “out of touch with reality” after it decided to replace Norah O’Donnell (pictured) with two male hosts
Last month, O’Donnell announced she would step down to make way for Daily Report anchors John Dickerson (left) and CBS New York’s Maurice DuBois (right), who will co-manage the newsroom.
“Norah O’Donnell recently announced that she will step down as anchor of ‘CBS Evening News’ after the election, after five years at the helm,” she wrote in the piece published Sunday.
“I know her tenure must have been both exciting and challenging… I applauded Ms. O’Donnell as she carried out her duties with intelligence and grace.”
The 67-year-old went on to say how proud she was of the fact [O’Donnell’ tackled topics that were especially important to women, such as sexual assault in the military… [and] the long-term effects of Covid on women.
“I saw her interview influential female executives and the four highest-ranking female military officers, all of whom were four-star generals and admirals,” she recalled.
“I knew viewers would see these stories because Norah was the driving force behind telling them.”
At this point the progressive movement changed its mind. It used the achievements it had just listed to express its astonishment at the prospect of such a figure being replaced by members of the opposite sex.
“It was more than a little disappointing to read that Ms. O’Donnell would be replaced by two men, John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois,” Couric wrote in the op-ed, after first noting how much she respected the replacements.
“The two people who will greet Americans watching the evening news are men,” she said again, calling for a “more diverse group of journalists” to take her place.
Couric, who anchored the CBS Evening News from 2006 to 2011, brought the complaint to attention in a scathing op-ed for the New York Times, in which she also noted the political climate surrounding the upcoming presidential election.
“It is strange and quite outdated that while CBS has announced a restructuring that will introduce an additional layer of female executives, the key editorial decision-makers will be predominantly men,” Couric continued, seemingly ignoring the off-screen progress.
“We are also in the midst of a campaign that could result in the election of the first woman president, and the first woman of color as president,” she went on to claim, making an oblique mention of presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
“It’s a potentially historic story that requires a diverse group of journalists to report on it.”
She also lamented that “three white men: Bill Owens, Guy Campanile and Jerry Cipriano” are currently running things behind the scenes.
All three are the main producers of the series, with Cipriano also writing a large portion of the scripts.
Couric, who has worked with all three, gave particular praise to Cipriano, then reminded readers that “male writers sometimes have blind spots.”
She says: ‘When I was working at CBS, I read a piece by one of my male colleagues that described Hillary Clinton in a way that I found subtly sexist.
“I asked my team, ‘Would you describe a male candidate this way?'” she continued. “We rewrote it.”
“We are also in the midst of a campaign that could result in the election of the first woman president, and the first woman of color as president,” she wrote as her reason for her hesitation to accept O’Donnell’s male replacements, obliquely mentioning candidate Kamala Harris
She pointed to the disappointing ratings under O’Donnell and the already large gap to rivals ABC and NBC. “CBS Evening News has been in third place for decades.”
“Although I couldn’t change much during my time as a presenter, I still hoped to open minds,” she continued.
‘Traditional news broadcasting may be on the decline, but more than half of viewers should still be demanding more from the industry.
‘Until then, the daily news broadcasts on the networks will once again be the domain of a few good men.’
Under O’Donnell, the show’s viewership fell by about 25 percent, despite CBS renewing her contract in 2022 after offering her an $8 million salary bonus three years earlier.
Insiders told The New York Post that salary has since been significantly reduced, as one person told the newspaper: ‘(O’Donnell) deserves[d] to lose her job.’
That said, O’Donnell, 50, will now take on a new role as senior correspondent ahead of the upcoming election, where she will provide stories and “major interviews” for CBS’s platforms.
Meanwhile, Couric said earlier this month that Democrats have “kind of lost” the working-class vote during an interview with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco Podcast ‘Hysteria’.
Couric previously said earlier this month that Democrats had “kind of lost” working-class votes during an interview on White House Deputy Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco’s podcast “Hysteria,” in which she called the group “out of touch with reality.”
Under O’Donnell, the show’s ratings have fallen by about 25 percent, even as CBS renewed her contract in 2022 after offering her an $8 million salary three years earlier. Her tenure began eight years after Couric left. She will remain at CBS as a senior correspondent
Her reason? Again: she’s too out of touch with reality.
“I think there needs to be a stronger connection between the working class and the Democratic Party, because let’s face it … the Democrats have kind of lost the working class,” Couric told the former Obama aide during his appearance a little over a week ago.
“That has never been the case during all the years I have been writing about politics,” she continued.
“You had the Teamsters leader at the RNC, and you had people who believed that Republicans were much more concerned about dinner table issues than Democrats were.
“And I think these stories are too deeply rooted in the condescending attitudes of liberal, college-educated elites.”
The NBC News regular was referring to Sean O’Brien, the head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who became the first leader in the union’s 121-year history to speak at the RNC, two days after the assassination of Donald Trump.
In his speech, O’Brien slammed companies like Walmart and Amazon, while criticizing the Chamber of Commerce and the federal government for not taking care of their workers.
Couric pointed to Hillary Clinton’s failure in 2016 and reminded the audience that it could very well happen again if Democrats don’t come back down to earth in November.
“I just want to see her with a welding helmet on, working with regular people,” Couric said of Harris, directing her to address “regular people.”
She added that Democrats also have more work to do, predicting that their current ties to the working class will not be enough to secure victory.