Katie Couric visits North Texas, asks about the news

It seems that the "independent" media was not something that the Couric tour had counted on. Just thought I would point that out. I still found Katie herself to be a very nice person.

I had the pleasure of meeting Katie Couric this afternoon during a Town Hall meeting that she held. Couric was in North Texas to share the story of her husband's struggle with colon cancer and his subsequent passing. After the luncheon she held a Town Hall meeting with about 80 people from the local area about different issues with the news.

My first impressions of Couric came when she popped her head in the side door before her introduction and just smiled at us. We all stood up and gave her a standing ovation. At this point I must say that the demographics of the room was mostly women but there was a good mix among those. Present with Katie was Rome Hartman, the executive producer of the CBS Evening News.

They started off by saying that there were no video cameras in the room and that they wanted us to be as honest with them as possible. Katie seemed very "down-to-earth" and had a smile on her face that was warm and inviting to questions and comments. She joked a little and then it was down to business.

The first question from Hartman and Couric was "Who watches the evening news?", to which a good amount of the people raised their hands. They then proceeded to ask why people did or did not watch the evening news. To this question there were numerous answers. A lot of the mothers in the room simply stated that they did not want their children seeing some of the images that showed up on the news. Some other responses were that the news was just too early in the evening (in Dallas at least) for them to catch.

From this point the discussion took different turns and became a little jagged, but a lot of questions were raised and good conversation was made. An older woman stood up and said that she wanted more international news. She wanted to know where the tax dollars that go to foreign aid actually go. This was followed by a comment that mentioned that we get enough national news from our local newscasts. This lead to a discussion about the coverage of healthcare by the national news. Does the news do enough to keep us informed about healthcare and its costs? Someone suggested that CBS offer solutions instead of always presenting the problem because as she said, "We know what the problem is, a lot of us live with the problem, what we need are solutions".

A few more issues that people mentioned and that Couric seemed to really understand were

1. Feeling like we are hit over the head with the same news for days in a row.
2. Sloppy journalism. Speed seems to be the focus instead of the facts.
3. Reactive reporting. "Oh that's awful" is seen as bad reporting by a good number. The anchor should be reporting the news, not throwing in their opinion.
4. Longer newscasts. Hartman mentioned a possible one hour newscast

There were some issues that were discussed and one of them was the education system in America needs more attention from the media. This was applauded and I completely agree. Most of the U.S. does not know what goes on to get "No Child Left Behind" to work. A teacher stood up and mentioned that "even most students know that the education system is messed up".

Couric asked about what we would like to see in terms of facts and the general consensus was that there needs to be education on the media's part. People mentioned examples of how little the U.S. public really knows. A few examples were the location of Iraq, global warming, and what NAFTA is. It was a very important point that was made and I was glad it was brought up.

Different methods of receiving news were discussed and the majority of people stated that they received most of their news through the internet and checked it at least once an hour, while at work. They asked if we would like video, podcasts, etc. I mentioned having a longer newscast mixed with a downloadable video would be very appealing.

Near the end of the time we had we talked about opinions in the news and what place it had in the evening broadcast. Most of the respondents stated that they did not want opinions in their news, instead just wanting facts like was mentioned earlier. Katie then asked if a small segment at the end of a newscast that had two people who were well informed in their field would discuss their side of the issue. Most people liked the idea but said that they did not want it to be the focus of the news. Everyone was very supportive of the idea that the news should provide information and not try to sway opinions.

Overall it was a great experience and I was very impressed with Couric's demeanor and the way she held herself. She was genuine in wanting to know what we wanted to see in the news. Yes, it's basic marketing, but she wanted to know why we were concerned about certain issues and how we were personally effected by them.

Back To Top

Couric's Twin Cities visit a well-oiled machine

The Minneapolis Star Tribune

Thu Jul 13

4