Channel surfing last night, I stopped at Katie Couric's first big event on CBS. It was that special about the 9-11 anniversary, asking whether we are safe. My expectations were that I'd watch just long enough to get disgusted with the one-sided storyline and partisan spin, then turn it off and go to bed.
But I was surprised. Of course, I only watched the first 30 minutes of the thing, but in that 30 minutes I was amazed to find Katie was actually fairly balanced. She interviewed the President without being confrontational and insulting (like she would in the past on Today). She portrayed supporters of Iraq (Iraq is a central front to the war on terror) and detractors (Iraq is a distraction from the war on terror) in a way that seemed, wow, even-handed.
So is she trying very hard to finally be the single news anchor that provides a factual and balanced look at the issues of the day? In this 30 minutes, she sure seemed to be. I wondered if it was killing her inside to be nice to the President and let people speak that she personally abhors.
Then again, I didn't see the rest of the program, so I don't know what conclusions it reached. Maybe at the end she reverted to her old insular liberal elitism, but that didn't seem to be where the program was headed.
Am I going to start watching CBS News? Not just yet.
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