Katie Couric Shines in Her News Debut

Posted on September 5, 2006

Katie Couric made television history tonight by being the first female to anchor a major network nightly news program. She knocked it out of the park.

The show began with Walter Cronkite doing the voiceover introducing Couric. Couric made a brief hello and went right into a hard-hitting piece on how Afghanistan is falling apart and how the Taliban is back. She interviewed Thomas Friedman about how the Iraq War is going (not good) and she even broke the hottest celebrity story going: she showed the first photos of Suri Cruise from the new Vanity Fair suit. In another breakthrough, the newscast was simulcast online: it's free, but you have to fill out a short registration form. The newscast can be watched, on demand, during the show, or anytime after. I watched it in on the simulcast and the picture was perfect. This is miles ahead of what any other news station is doing and is clearly the future for major news broadcasts.

Regular features include one about consumers and their money; tonight offered a tour of the new oil rig platform which is drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico (it will take more than a year of drilling to confirm the value of the major new find). A new Free Speech segment will give voice to everyone from Rush Limbaugh (Thursday) to former President Bush. Morgan Spurlock took the first spot talking about how America isn't nearly as divided on issues as the media makes it out to be. Rush Limbaugh said that George Clooney has already asked for equal time to refute everything that Rush will say. The segments run from 30 seconds to 1 minute and 30 seconds, and there will be no rebuttal on the same night. On Friday night, a comedian will take the spot. Let's hope Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert agree to stop by.

Katie's voice was measured and melodious, she looked great and, most importantly, she sounded serious. She was good, very good indeed.