Incoming CBS anchor Katie Couric has officially dropped the nice-girl act and has instead become the high-class equivalent of a breastfeeding activist whipping her top off in a 4-star restaurant to protest common expectations of politeness. Arianna Huffington reports on the Aspen Ideas Festival:
A conversation that saw Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute, interviewing outgoing CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer and his replacement, Katie Couric. The knockout line of the night came from Couric who, when asked about her famous on-air colonoscopy, smiled that $15 million smile and promised that for her new job she'd up the ante and get an on-air pap smear.
Look, I am for pap smears and for breastfeeding in big ways, being scientifically-and health-minded personally as well as politically. This is not a commentary on a procedure that I think every female between certain ages needs. It IS a comment that Katie Couric is perfectly willing to beat her viewers over the head with gender shock value when it's convenient to her (Couric is not kidding, by the way. Trust me on this) but is also more than happy to demand she be loved for her icy steel trap of a genderless mind, if that's what'll make her ratings go up.
I'll also predict this. In a very significant way, Couric's deliberately paving the way for Evening News reports on other personal gender-health issues that will be designed to shock anyone who doesn't share a high-class libertine worldview. In the meantime, put this gown on. Dr. Couric will be right with you.
(Hat tip to TVNewser for the item.)
