Katie Couric: An expert uses her words

I don’t know who Lehigh University journalism professor Kimberly Meltzer is, either, but she or a flunky sent me an Email offering her insights on Katie Couric’s first year in CBS’s news-anchor chair.

Oh, and they sent a sentence explaining her street cred, too. Meltzer, author of “Irreconcilable Differences: An Analysis of Television's Difficult Marriage with Journalism Through the Lens of Its Anchors, 1950-2006” (apparently, she was paid by the word, starting with the title), was a former assistant to Couric, so her views may be somewhat colored based on how well or poorly Katie treated her.

"Couric has become a personality type, against which all other anchor personalities are compared and contrasted. She achieved this status while on the Today show. Viewers and critics now measure her CBS performance against this well-developed and ingrained archetype she and NBC created while in her former role."

On Katie going to Iraq:

"It is also with the 'Today Katie' back story in mind that we fear for her safety as she ventures to Iraq, perhaps more than we would with either of her competitors. Even though CBS has returned to a more traditional hard news format since Couric debuted last year, we still remember Today's Katie and all that we knew about her.

"Critics and competitors will watch to judge her CBS anniversary performance; fans will watch to be reassured that she is alive and well. And some viewers will actually watch to hear her report on the situation as she finds it on the ground."

Finally, on how journalism is screwed:

"In terms of predicting what will happen to journalism next, history points to the increasingly fluid boundaries of the craft. The threat of new technology and new forms of news media to the existing journalistic community in general does two competing things: They make the community cling even more steadfastly to its present and traditional principles and standards, and, in some instances, force it to be flexible in adapting and reinventing it so that it doesn't become obsolete and expendable.

"We've seen the return in the course of the past year to a more traditional news broadcast, and we've seen all three network news broadcasts create anchor blogs, webcasts, podcasts and make use of new technology in other ways to try to maintain a more mobile and tech-savvy audience."

OK, I guess that was useful.