Dhimmbat
It is with great sadness that I must report that not only has Katie Couric failed to transcend dingbatitude, she has embraced dhimmitude.
Katie went to Iraq, listened, and briefly made sense. I even dubbed her, too optimistically, the Anti-Cronkite. For a minute there, maybe one broadcast, I actually thought there was a chance the leggy lightweight might be the one who could see through the defeatist nonsense. Don’t worry. She got over it:
Speaking at the National Press Club Tuesday evening, CBS “Evening News” anchor Katie Couric pulled back the curtain on her personal views of both the war in Iraq and former “Evening News” anchor Dan Rather.
“Everyone in this room would agree that people in this country were misled in terms of the rationale of this war,” said Couric, adding that it is “pretty much accepted” that the war in Iraq was a mistake.
“I’ve never understood why [invading Iraq] was so high on the administration’s agenda when terrorism was going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that [Iraq] had no true connection with al Qaeda.”
Well, Katie, like everyone else in the world, the administration believed Iraq had active WMD programs and stockpiles. Remains unclear to what extent that was the case at the time of the invasion, though it’s well established that Iraq under Saddam Hussein would have soon been back in the WMD business, if it was not already, once the Europeans and Kofi Annan succeeded in dismantling the sanctions. There was also the matter of well-documented repeated invasions, genocide, and support for Islamic terrorism, to include, we’ve learned since, contacts with al-Qaeda. Interesting that you expect everyone in the room at the National Press Club to agree with you though. They can’t all be that ill-informed.
Couric finds war and American flags ”uncomfortable.” Interesting coming from someone who worked a short limo ride from the twin towers.
The former “Today” show anchor traced her discomfort with the administration’s march to war back to the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“The whole culture of wearing flags on our lapel and saying ‘we’ when referring to the United States and, even the ‘shock and awe’ of the initial stages, it was just too jubilant and just a little uncomfortable.”
But wait, it gets better.
Couric referenced comments made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday’s “The Charlie Rose Show,” and said she actually agreed with Ahmadinejad on one point. “Oftentimes Westerners don’t really understand fully the values of this particular culture,” said Couric. “And I think the jury is still out as to whether democracy can really thrive in Iraq.”
Well, for the moment I think we can call it a hung jury.
She also says very earnest reporter stuff about Dan Rather, who she throws under the bus. I believe this may be another bid for credibility, sort of like that going to Iraq thing. I suspect she’s just been listening to Les Moonves grumbling, and made a couple of mental notes to repeat at her big serious media night out. I wonder whether she’s figured out that if storied professionals like Rather and Arnett can screw up that bad, it’s only a matter of time before she steps in it.
Newsbusters on Katie’s efforts to claw her way back into the good graces of the MoveOn crowd.
Here she is from the Kalb Report session referenced in that Newsbusters link:
The Kalb Report was a chance for Couric to share her personal experience in Baghdad and her views of the current state of the media and how today’s anchors should behave in front of the cameras. After spending a week in Iraq, Couric said that the complexity of the war and the emotional implications make the truth difficult to reveal.
When Kalb asked if she felt the American people were getting the straight story of Iraq, she responded, “The truth is incredibly complicated. Almost everyone who discusses Iraq has an agenda that is fairly extended…There is an Iraq fatigue among the populace, but if you seek it out, you can get the news and information that you need.” She continued to say that the American people do not recognize the real human toll because it “gets obscured by statistics” but there is an “enormous patriotism and quality of people serving over there.”
Couric cited The Economist, Time, and Newsweek as publications that she feels are “straight down the middle” in their reporting. Kalb challenged, “Is it right for a journalist to stay down the middle when something is glaringly wrong?”
“It’s important to observe what’s going on and to ask challenging questions,” Couric answered confidently. “We need to be skeptical of what we’re told and always check facts and figures. But it’s not my place to say that the war is wrong.” She encouraged seeking facts to report the truth but admitted that “advocacy journalism” is not her role.
I’m pretty sure she just did say it was wrong. But it sounds like, much as happened to George Romney in Vietnam, Katie got brainwashed in Iraq. So is Katie, back in the States and confronted with all the complicated truths and fairly extended agendas of her pals here, now pro-abandonment of all those wonderful people she met in Iraq?
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:38 pm Comments (10) on Wednesday, September 26, 2007
10 Responses to “Dhimmbat”
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September 26th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Katie Couric thinks only of Katie Couric, in a display of narcissim at its worst.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:36 am
There is something in the water at the CBS studio where the newsreader performs the Evening News. She is not relevant, and neither was Rather. Both have one thing in common- they know it and are not handling it well.
Katie figures she should have stayed at the Today Show, interviewing intellectual equals such as Sean Penn, Barbara Streisand, yucking it up with Hillary!, and sharing the stage with lovable Al Roker suggesting the perfect Christmas gift or how to handle outbreaks of crabgrass on your lawn. Absolute paradise compared to what she’s got herself into now. Too bad.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:39 am
Here is the thing, poor Katie lives in a bubble. The Media Bubble, the one that consumes mid-town Manhattan.
Another Report:
“Everyone in this room would agree that people in this country were misled in terms of the rationale of this war,” said Couric, adding that it is “pretty much accepted” that the war in Iraq was a mistake.
Couric said the Bush administration botched the war effort, calling it “accepted truths” that it erred by “disbanding the Iraq military, and leaving 100,000 Sunni men feeling marginalized and angry…[and] whether there were enough boots on the ground, the feeling that we’d be welcomed as liberators and didn’t need to focus as much on security.”
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The poor dear has never had a thought in her life that wasn’t approved by everyone she knows, or at least all of the cool kids anyway. That is how you get to be popular. And she is perky and popular. The real question is why does anyone think she has worthwhile opinions. She doesn’t. She couldn’t.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:41 am
Elroy, you left out her colonoscopy.
September 27th, 2007 at 2:17 am
2007.09.27 Politics and National Defense Roundup
SF Murder Charges Travesty at Ft BraggUncle Jimbo Hanson I had mentioned in a previous piece that I thought I knew MSG Troy Anderson who along with CPT Dave Staffel, now awaits an answer as to whether he will face
September 27th, 2007 at 2:18 am
“Oftentimes Westerners don’t really understand fully the values of this particular culture,” said Couric.
And the talking-heads prove it over and over. No matter how many headless bodies show up, they still don’t understand the values of this particular culture.
Well, speak for yourself sister. If you haven’t figured it out by now, then you’re dhimmer then I thought–something I didn’t think possible.
September 27th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
As I mentioned last time, Katie isn’t the anti-Cronkite, she’s the current Cronkite. Old Walter was a left-wing wolf in middle-of-the-road sheep disguise , as every comment that has passed his lips since old Iron Pants left the anchor chair proves.
September 27th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Web Reconnaissance for 09/27/2007
A short recon of whats out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
September 27th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
It’s a small point in this context, but her on-air colonoscopy is probably the most useful thing she has ever done on TV. Seriously. I give her a lot of credit for that one.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:05 am
“The whole culture of wearing flags on our lapel and saying ‘we’ when referring to the United States…”
Don’t expect loyalty or patriotism from leftoid media types…’cause you ain’t gonna get it.