Steve Adubato: Katie Couric 'Not a Great News Anchor'

July 12th, 2007 11:16 AM

Not all news insiders believe Katie Couric's disastrous stint as anchor for the CBS Evening News has anything to do with sexism or people having a thing against Couric. Steve Adubato of MSNBC simply believes Couric was the wrong person for the job. He tries to sweeten the criticism by making sure he compliments Couric on her strengths:

While I respect Katie Couric tremendously as a broadcaster who has had an impressive career doing personal profiles and engaging interviews, this CBS experiment was a really long shot right from the beginning.   Simply put, Katie Couric is not a great news anchor or an even particularly good news anchor, at least not a network evening news anchor.  That's not a crime.  A lot of great football players can't play baseball or basketball, but they are still great athletes.  That's how different Katie Couric's job on "The Today Show” was from what she was expected to do for CBS News. 

Adubato goes on to list some of the bad ideas incorporated into the newscast: the "Free Speech" segment and asking viewers to send their ideas as to how the newscast should be closed each night.

According to Adubato, it's not about a "We Hate Katie Couric" thing, it's about Couric simply not fitting in.

I just never saw Katie in this role, and obviously I am not alone.  The job never fit her skill set. 

He ends by suggesting she stop dragging out the inevitable and just accept that this isn't working out. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes for Couric and her bosses at CBS to take his timely advice.