While Matt Lauer worried that Robert Gates's criticism of President Obama was "dangerous or dishonorable" on Monday's NBC Today, when disgruntled ex-Bush administration officials wrote memoirs bashing the former president in 2004 and 2008, the network morning show happily cheered them on.

On January 13, 2004 – exactly ten years prior to Lauer's Monday interview with Gates – then-Today co-host Katie Couric hyped former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's attacks on President George W. Bush in a new tell-all: "I think if I can sort of try to assess your description, as policy having no process, kind of being put together willy-nilly. You do describe him as 'a blind man in a room full of deaf people.'"

Katie Couric’s upsetting the leftists again. The “girl-on-girl culture site” Autostraddle was unhappy that she had to ask the inevitable “genitals” questions when she had on two men on her talk show Monday who dress like women (“trans women”), model Carmen Carrera and actor Laverne Cox. As might be expected, Couric promotionally titled the segment "Transgender Trailblazers."

“The real trouble started when Couric started to ask Ms. Carrera if transitioning was painful because of all the surgery that she had to go through. Carmen looked a little confused and responded by talking a little about her nose job and breast augmentation and that’s when Katie pounced,” the author “Mey” complained. “She immediately asked if Carmen’s “private parts” are “different now” and if she’s had that surgery yet.”

The TV career of Katie Couric has been a long decline since she left NBC for an unsuccessful stint in Dan Rather's anchor chair at the CBS Evening News. The Hollywood Reporter suggests Couric is negotiating an exit with ABC News as she's wooed by Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer to become a "global news anchor" for Yahoo! News, whatever that means. That's the kind of title you give a big fish in a small pond.

"Couric's daytime talk show is in its second and almost certainly final season on ABC," and the dealmaking only deepens that reality. Sources at Disney and ABC insist for now that that decision will come after they look at the November sweeps numbers.

There’s trouble in Katie Land. Alex Ben Block at The Hollywood Reporter warns her show is “teetering on the verge of cancellation,” that “soft ratings, a huge budget and ‘disdain’ for her female audience — Q Scores report only 10 percent of women view Couric favorably — have the host's Disney/ABC talk show in jeopardy as a renewal decision nears.”

The third season just began with a publicity blitz about Couric getting engaged, but “renewal seems a long shot.”
Anonymous “insiders” say the show is too hard-edged, not soft-focus enough for the 25-to-54 women viewers.

NBC Today show host Matt Lauer isn't pleased with the press he got after the network's catastrophic removal of co-host Ann Curry last year.

In an interview with New York magazine published online Sunday evening, Lauer laughably whined, "When the media covers something, it’s important to do basic homework. You can’t just repeat something over and over again until it sounds true. It’s not fair."