Katie's Moment

"It was impossible not to choke up and grow anxious as Katie Couric announced she is leaving the "Today" show after 15 years -- please, Lord, let the next co-host not be Ann Curry.

"Ms. Couric and Matt Lauer managed the long-anticipated statement with aplomb, diluting sentimentality with touches of humor. Ms. Curry chimed in with her customary cloying intensity, saying she felt as if her sister were moving out to go to college (she was at least smart enough to not say "older sister"). As "Today" begins a momentous transition, Ms. Curry was a useful reminder of why NBC wants ABC's Meredith Vieira for the job.

Ms. Couric's on-air persona has inevitably changed, sometimes gratingly, since her saucy debut in 1991, but no other network morning personality is as vibrant. Outside her isolation booth at the news desk, Ms. Curry is downright unwatchable, and none of the network's other aspirants seem personable and down-to-earth enough to win over the show's mostly female, middle-aged audience. Ms. Vieira, 52, is an engaging, good-humored and experienced newscaster who may not always enthrall viewers, but is unlikely to bore or repel them."

Boy, when a critic doesn't like you. . . .

Arianna rips the press, recounting an award dinner by the magazine The Week at which she chatted with journalist Michael Massing, among others:

"Massing pinned the blame for the Washington press corps' spinelessness on a fear of being taken to task by Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. I, on the other hand, argued that Washington reporters don't give a whit about Limbaugh and Coulter. What they care about -- deeply and passionately -- is what the people they might be sitting next to at dinner that night will think of them. Indeed, Beltway reporters are more affected by peer pressure than a junior high transfer student being offered a cigarette by the coolest girl in school. That's why they never want to stray too far from the Conventional Wisdom. Perish the thought.

"Of course, the other reason for the press's timidity is that over the last decade reporters have lost sight of the fact that their mission is to uncover the truth -- not slip between the covers with the powers-that-be."

Slip between the covers? Puh-lease. It was Arianna who got under the sheets with Al Franken at one of the conventions:

"Far too many on the Washington beat have traded their press pass for an all-access White House pass -- and, in doing so, have sacrificed their duty to the public for entry to the halls of power. The dishonor roll is long and star-studded, with Bob Woodward at the top."

Power Line's Paul Mirengoff , who was there, saw it as "a panel discussion in which media types beat up the White House press corps for being too soft on President Bush. Arianna Huffington led the charge. She thinks that the White House press corps let the country down by not disputing the Bush administration's claim that Saddam Hussein had WMD. Never mind that this claim was not disputed by foreign intelligence services or by our own. To the extent that there were a few dissenters within the intelligence community, no one tonight explained why reporters whose beat was the White House should have found them, or why anyone should have credited them in the face of the overwhelming intelligence consensus to the contrary.

"Nonetheless, the only real debate was over why coverage of Bush is so uncritical. One panelist argued that the cause is fear by reporters of Russ Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. The discussion got me wondering why those not on the front lines of the MSM's struggle with the Bush administration are so contemptuous of those who are. The answer, I think, is that many of these folks hate Bush so much that no level of bashing short of their own pet irrational attacks can satisfy them."

A headline like this always grabs me: The case for buying off politicians :