politricks and other distractions

Oh pleasepleaseplease...

My heart is lightened this morning with news that I may soon be able to watch The Today Show again in the mornings. Katie Couric may finally be leaving. Hall-e-LUJAH.

The woman who perfected the role of perky emotional parasite will surely be paid a lot of money to move on. Good for her. Good for all of us.

I don't know anyone in recent years who hasn't wanted to kick Katie's teeth in when she interviews the family of a murder victim the day after the crime. "How did it make you feel to see your daughter's mutilated body, Susan?" and other such stellar examples of humanity.

Now, I'll have to admit that I once interviewed the victims and widow/widowers of people who'd been shot in one of the first office building massacres in San Francisco. This was about 12 years ago and I was writing the direct mail campaign for a candidate in the Bay Area who was for gun control. I had my Katie Couric moments where I had to ask some of them, "So what does it feel like to be shot by an automatic weapon?" Amazingly, they answered calmly and with a cool clarity that may have been because some time had passed between the incident and the retelling. Or maybe it was that they were choosing to use their pain to make a difference - to elect a candidate who might stop madmen from being able to get guns and use them on others as they had had they used on them.

That campaign won awards for best congressional race that year. The interviews turned into something quite moving and real, but unfortunately, something that didn't win the race for the candidate.

So I cop to the fact that I've had to use people for a purpose too, but the subjects of my interview were able to make sound judgments to be used. What always bugs me about Katie and her ilk is that they ambulance chase. I always wonder what it's like to be in the houses of the victims' families that awful next day when you're dealing with morgues and coroners and police and funeral homes... and have the phone ring and it's some young perky producer from the Today Show trying to schmooze you with a sense of caring while getting you to commit to being up and in makeup at 5 am your time the next day for an interview on national TV.

In my imagination, it's a crime in and of itself. Using you while your wounds are still so fresh you don't know what you want, except to get through today, or to turn back the clock.

And you don't realize til the lights and cameras go off that there's no price you can pay, no public humiliation or pleading too bare, to get you what you want. But at least you will have given Katie good ratings.

Good bye and good riddance, Katie.

posted by dcnative @ 9:24 AM