Quote · Call Her Daddy
Katie Couric: Sexism, Storytelling & Standing Up to Cancer
Where this was said
Making History: First Woman to Solo Anchor the Evening News
At 29:02 · chapter starts 26:30
The CBS Evening News anchor chair had always belonged to a white male authority figure, and when CBS hired Couric to change that — and to change the format itself — she found herself in an impossible position [1] — Katie Couric "Becoming the first woman to solo anchor the CBS Evening News made Katie Couric a historic figure — and an immediate target. Network insider…" 26:30 . Les Moonves wanted her to modernise the broadcast, but the CBS audience was the oldest, most traditional of any network, and they didn't want modernising. Meanwhile, internal naysayers and saboteurs made her life miserable. The media, rather than focusing on her journalism, fixated on her makeup, hair, and how she held her hands. The cumulative pressure caused a rare breakdown at the dinner table in front of her daughters and their nanny Laurie Beth. Her younger daughter Carrie, then 10, responded by quoting Samantha Jones from Sex and the City verbatim: 'If I listened to what every bitch in New York City said about me, I'd never leave the house.' The pitch-perfect delivery made Katie laugh, and she got through it. She also draws a direct line to Michelle Obama's experience: no matter what either woman achieved, the coverage centred on their appearance rather than their substance.
Becoming the first woman to solo anchor the CBS Evening News made Katie Couric a historic figure — and an immediate target. Network insiders sabotaged her ideas, the audience resisted change, and media critics picked apart her makeup and hand placement. She describes it as one of the most challenging periods of her life.
