Video Exposes Katie Couric’s Anti-Palin Bias ! Or, You Know, No It Doesn’t

Many conservative blogs are running with this video of Katie Couric preparing for a story about Sarah Palin in the days before the 2008 Republican Convention as proof of Couric’s bias:

The Daily Caller opines:

As with JournoList, it’s nice to have solid confirmation of what we’ve long suspected. These gatekeepers, these guardians of the truth, consider most of us unworthy of anything but casual contempt.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/04/its-interesting-to-watch-katie-couric-drop-her-pretense-of-impartiality/#ixzz0vfZAXdS8

And the response from Conservatives For Palin is, well, predictable:

As you can see, the video shows Katie Couric preparing to go on the air on the day John McCain announced Governor Palin as his running mate. It shows some tantalizing hints of Couric’s attitude toward the Governor–when talking about first Trig, then Track, Couric says “where the hell do they get these [names]?…” At that point the producer running the sound board shut off the sound because he or she didn’t want to have Couric’s disdainful and contemptuous view of Governor Palin’s children captured on even an internal CBS tape that they never expected would see the light of day. You can tell this by the “OMG!” reaction of the CBS news employees who were in the control room as Couric said that about the Governor’s kids. This video also shows Couric taking a shot at female basketball players and at Governor Palin’s hometown, one of the fastest growing areas in the country, and the fifth largest city in Alaska.

Personally, I think Ann Althouse gets it right:

Oh, ridiculous. In private, who didn’t have a laugh at the names of Sarah and Bristol Palin’s kids? I bet the Palin family members themselves laugh about it. “Solid confirmation”?! Spare me.

I’m not saying that Couric is a paragon of journalistic objectivity, or even that she’s a very good anchor, but given the fact this was apparently taped on the very day that Palin was introduced to the country when none of us knew about her, Couric’s reaction isn’t neither shocking nor offensive nor evidence of anything.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. I’m with Althouse on this one:  let he who has made no comments about the Palin’s kid’s names throw the first stone.

    And really, in terms of making fun, the video is pretty tame.

  2. reid says:

    I didn’t bother watching this five-minute video, but if all it’s about is her saying that about the kids’ names, then yeah, it’s stupid.  Partisan idiots.

  3. Simon says:

    All it proves is that when Couric put her colonoscopy on TV, viewers saw nothing different from what she puts on camera any other night.

  4. Zelsdorf Ragshaft III says:

    Doug you would not see anything wrong with what she did if she had mocked her every action.  I fail to see the logic in the statement about your ignorance of Palin extending to Couric.  If this was taped on the day of the announcement, Katie sure knew a lot about Palin, her family and her background.  Couric had less than half of the gravitas, charm and knowledge of Jane Pauley.  If you do not think Couric was mocking Palin it proves the addage there is none so blind as those who will not see.

  5. Franklin says:

    If this was taped on the day of the announcement, Katie sure knew a lot about Palin, her family and her background.
    Huh?  I’m pretty sure a news outlet can look up info like the names of a governor’s kids pretty quickly, even if they had never even heard of the governor before.
    My opinion:  At the time, I was hoping that Palin would be, well, a qualified candidate.  But I found the names a bit curious, and probably joked about them in private, even though I actually liked the names (perhaps I was the only one?).