Whatever you might think about the former Today Show host, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric deserves a little bit of your respect. Why? Because when the Internet made fun of Katie Couric on the Internet, Couric didn’t just sit back and take it. Instead, she joined in, and in doing so changed the story to one of her own making.
On Jan. 15th, comedy icon and My Damn Channel MVP Harry Shearer posted a montage of between-takes snippets of Katie Couric on her first election night. The eight minutes of video show Couric fiddling with her microphone, joking with producers, demanding interesting exit poll results, and in general doing her job with a camera pointed at her face. The clip, along with others in Shearer’s Found Objects series, racked up over a million views, and was probably more than a little embarrassing for the fairly new anchor.
But, according to the LA Times, the video’s success inspired Couric and her producers to offer up their own take on the Evening News behind-the-scenes action. On Feb. 1, Couric welcomed viewers to her channel, throwing out a good-natured tease to Harry Shearer before turning the subject to CBS’s election coverage. (She totally fails to reference Brenda Dickson’s Welcome to My Home, but hey, she’s a beginner — expecting Couric to have an encyclopedic memory for memes is perhaps expecting too much.)
Subsequent videos have shown Couric meeting with Mommy bloggers, waiting to interview Hillary Clinton and touring the Obama campaign headquarters. There’s even an election night behind-the-scenes of the news team’s own making — this one from Super Tuesday, and much shorter than Harry Shearer’s.
By engaging with her critics online, the Couric YouTube channel not only offers a fresh view on her professional life, but gives the anchor her own voice in that debate. While her view counts haven’t yet matched those of Harry Shearer, the short, snappy quality of the pieces demonstrates a clear understanding of online video — she’s not beating anyone at their own game, but she’s definitely here to play.
Play, though, not work, and that is another issue — a pretty big one if you ask me. Couric may have been able to silence her online critics, but her offline critics still doubt that she’s serious enough for the hard news desk, and speculation has grown that she’ll leave Evening News well before her contract expires. By addressing one small fraction of her demographic, Couric may have failed to do her standing in the news world any good. Sure, respect for web video has grown exponentially in journalistic circles, but let’s be honest: If you’re trying to convince people I R SRIUS JRLNIST, a video of you dueting with Bette Midler might not be the best strategy.
