Couric and Lauer : Classic or Dud?

Because NBC had the US rights to the Olympics, the last couple of days before they started Katie and Matt hosted the show from a ferry in the middle of Sydney Harbour. I remember I taped one show and tried to watch it next morning, at the time of day Mr and Mrs Middle America would be tuning in and basically waking up to it, but I found I could barely stay awake. This led me to wonder whether Homo Americanus somehow had bred in a different metabolism/body clock from Homo Restoftheworldus.

I don't normally wake up with "Today". I will usually go with the more subdued "Good Morning America", unless I really need some mental caffeine, in which case I will go with the saccharine "Today" gang.

But hey, at least "Today" isn't "Fox & Friends".

Katie Couric is annoyingly perky at times. She reminds me of a stereotypical cheerleader type. I really cannot stand that type of individual. Sometimes, though, she seems to transcend that. Bitch. Only kidding! Matt Lauer seems to be a nonpresence half the time, but I do like his voice. So, "classic or dud", you ask? Neither, really.

As for wakeup times -- well, I'm used to 6 a.m. :)

Personally, I find all morning talk shows a waste of time. I rarely if ever watch TV that early, but if I do, it's usually NY1.

Katie C has long been a white-hot topic of debate on the Jump The Shark site. Right-Whingers (of the type that are morally outraged by West Wing and see Hillary C as the Whore of Babylon) seem to hate her with a passion. It's therefore safe assuming she's doing something er, right.

Let me be the first to say that Katie Couric's approval ratings are at an all-time high among me this week.

The inflection on "What other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with?" is priceless. So very "I'm afraid there just isn't room for you on the squad this year"...

the invention of katie couric as important journalistic voice is sarah palin's major accomplishment to date, as far as i can tell.

(and the way cbs has been milking this, leaking out one q&a at a time, obviously doing a lot of sotto voce "oh we've got better stuff coming" to the punditverse and bloggysphere, has been great viral marketing.)

:)

How many more of these things do we got?

still haven't seen the one where katie gives her a blank map of the lower 48 and 5 minutes to name as many states as she can.

the invention of katie couric as important journalistic voice is sarah palin's major accomplishment to date, as far as i can tell.

I know, right?

And it's also Nixon's politics of resentment made flesh. It's been right there from the first segment, in the flash of pure hatred in that perky "and I'll bring 'em to ya!" So why am I rooting for the cheerleader over the plucky girl from the wrong side of the tracks?

(oh wait, I know why... because it turns out, and not for the first time, that the plucky girl from the wrong side of the tracks doesn't want to overthrow the mean girls to usher in an age of equal time in the lunchroom and an end to wedgies; she wants to sit upon a throne of skulls and reign in blood. The mean girls have always been, for better or worse, the ançien régime; the plucky girl from the wrong side of the tracks is the Terror.)

i saw that one. sarah names like ten of them, all southern states, before katie gets in the twist ending: "i gave you a map of europe". xp

didn't you ban yourself?

So why am I rooting for the cheerleader over the plucky girl from the wrong side of the tracks?

cuz they screwed up and cast demi instead of ally.

(katie is molly, obv)

katie feigns just enough pleasant 'huh? didn't catch that" to make it work, i mean there's a pretty obvious viciousness to it that's all but buried under lol. pretty risky stuff in this political climate.

it's hard to read exactly where k.c. is coming from in all this, but besides the obvious career-and-credibility boost, i can't help wondering if there's some alpha female stuff going on. in some ways couric's trajectory prefigures palin's, except that she busted her ass for more years to get there. and she's suffered from a not-entirely-dissimilar percpetion of being a pretty-face lightweight. but she's also not an idiot, and she's paid her dues in lots of different ways, so i wonder how all that affects how she sees and approaches palin.

maybe she hates her and wants obama to win.

mosura-san - yup that's what I'm sayin'... no room on the squad

I should actually look for some of her old interviews on The Today Show but Katie and Matt both ambushed a whole bunch of people on that show who thought they were going to get fluffy coffee talk and instead got a mini-"60 Minutes" drilling. Neither one of them ever conducted exclusively softball interviews.

i really want to see palin's frozen smile and barely restrained impatience suddenly crack, and for her to lunge at couric, pulling her to the ground by the hair. they so hate each other.

she definitely HATES couric at this point. if things turn out the way they should, couric's smug smartypants face will haunt her dreams for the rest of her days/nights.

oh thank God, Couric/Palin fanfic has not yet hit Google

that's b/c we are waiting for Cindy/Couric/Palin fanfic to hit Google

I am writing some now!

Found it! Cindy/Couric/Palin fanfic

KC so clearly has the upper hand, I mean for starters she's spent decades communicating effectively in the English language so obv that's a Win. SP just staggers after the cart with the carrot on it, except she's slowly realizing it's the kind of nightmare where you're suddenly naked and all your colleagues are turning around with cocktails in their hands....

that is one trippy, fucked-up nightmare

SP just staggers after the cart with the carrot on it, except she's slowly realizing it's the kind of nightmare where you're suddenly naked and all your colleagues are turning around with cocktails in their hands....

no but don't you see, we want Cindy to grab the carrot. Cindy can be holding the carrot. . . eh? EH?

He worked his way up the ankles to Katie's knees, and then his thighs. As Sarah's hands continued up Katie's body to his torso, they traveled lightly over Katie's full rear end. Sarah's blood quickened at his first touch of such an interesting area of flesh.

He lathered up Katie's stomach and carefully rubbed the soap over the other man's front. "I am pleased that your chest is once again free of hair," Sarah remarked. Then he ran his foamy hands over Katie's pecs, grazing both nipples at once.

"Mm," Katie grunted in answer. More of his penis went turgid. Sarah continued to clean him as if he hadn't noticed, moving soap all around Katie's back without missing an inch of skin.

Sarah returned to the floor and gathered more soap into his hand. Now he ran his curious, searching fingers against Katie's inner thighs, exploring the contours and lines there which were uniquely Katie's.

it's hard to read exactly where k.c. is coming from in all this, but besides the obvious career-and-credibility boost, i can't help wondering if there's some alpha female stuff going on. in some ways couric's trajectory prefigures palin's, except that she busted her ass for more years to get there. and she's suffered from a not-entirely-dissimilar percpetion of being a pretty-face lightweight. but she's also not an idiot, and she's paid her dues in lots of different ways, so i wonder how all that affects how she sees and approaches palin.

― tipsy mothra, Thursday, October 2, 2008 3:32 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i believe what you're trying to say here is RRRROOOOOWWWRR CATFIGHT

http://ndn.newsweek.com/media/41/cindy-mccain-NA01-wide-horizontal.jpg

Is that desktop wallpaper? It has the blank left side for the icons and everything....

the right side looks pretty blank too

ZING

i believe what you're trying to say here is RRRROOOOOWWWRR CATFIGHT

busted

Has Lauer responded yet to his figurative disembowelment?

Behind the scenes, NBC execs concede Matt Lauer forum performance was "disaster"

Best line, by a country mile: But Lauer's interviewing skills are second to none. He has hosted thousands of episodes of the "Today" show.