House of Eratosthenes

Around the Memorial Day weekend, I had let Katie Couric have it, and jotted down my primary objection to what she’s made her career into, with respect to what we call “news”: You Report It, Or You Are It. One or the other; can’t be both. So which one is Katie? Well, I hear of lots and lots of folks who know what Katie’s been doing lately, what she’s wearing, where she’s going, how much she’s making. Seldom to never have I heard anyone say “I’m going to watch her to find out what’s going on.”

Well, now via Newsbusters we see she’s on a tour, winding through the midwest to find out about all those people in fly-over country. Or, is she telling the people about herself? Which way is the information flowing here? Let’s try to find out…

It was a well-orchestrated media event that excluded the media, a private invitation-only meeting in the brand new Minneapolis public library designed to connect network news’s biggest new deal — The Katie — with “regular folks” from Minnesota.

Eh, we don’t know. There’s an effort to “connect.” Let’s read further.

Those “folks” meeting Katie Couric, newly of CBS news, included former City Council President Jackie Cherryhomes, public relations guru Jon Austin, St. Thomas journalism professor Mark Neuzil, and numerous recognizable faces from government and social service agencies, as well as students and “soccer moms.”

Couric’s “Eye on America” road show passed through Minneapolis on Wednesday in a visit that was part fundraiser, part celebrity peek-a-boo, and part of the “soft sell” campaign by CBS News to introduce Katie Couric to the nation.

Ah. There it is! So as to the notion of a “listening tour,” bollocks to that. Katie isn’t “listening,” she’s telling. Marketing a product.

Nothing wrong with that. Although, my personal preference would be that it be called a “talking tour” or something.

And then something amazing happened…

“It seems like something the president would pull,” said Jane Kirtley, University of Minnesota ethics professor. “At a time when the news media is trying to gain the trust through transparency, to have a meeting closed to the media and the general public is unbelievable.”

Publicity is fine, Kirtley said, “but what really offends me is, let’s not pretend for a minute this is going to get the pulse of Minnesota.”
:
Matt Bartel, owner of the popular MNSpeak blog also was issued an invitation by WCCO, although the station apparently didn’t recognize the name Bartel (ubiquitous in Twin Cities publishing circles) or his business, until the event was about to start.

“They pulled me out of the auditorium and told me that they’d become aware of the fact that I had a blog,” Bartel said. “They said, ‘We don’t want you to participate,’ ” then offered him a choice: surrender his notebook or leave the event.

“I wasn’t going to give them my notebook; I had business stuff in there.”

A compromise was reached – the ‘CCO staffer confiscated Bartel’s pen instead.

Not that there was much to take notes on anyway, Bartel said later.

“No one said anything all that remarkable. And even with the interesting things that were said, I can’t imagine it would make any difference.”

Okay, I read the whole thing. I’m really having a tough time trying to figure out what the object of this exercise was…besides marketing. And if it was a marketing exercise and nothing more, the idea that people can show up to something like this and leave with the impression that it was anything else, or even read about it and form the impression it was anything else…well, that just flabbergasts me.

We’re talking big, big money here. And yet, I just can’t understand how, or why, anybody would want to get their news from this woman. Or if they think this is something they want to do, why this antipathy toward bloggers, and the general public, isn’t highlighted a little bit better.

Why aren’t you allowed to take notes? More stimulating to my curiosity, is, why isn’t there some kind of “official line” on why you aren’t allowed to take notes? Mister Minnesota College Professor Guy compares Katie to President Bush. Okay, I’ll bite, and I acknowledge I’m a little green around the edges where appearances by the President are concerned. Can you not take notes when he appears somewhere? I’ve seen people doing it. I can’t imagine he’d be able to show up somewhere, have the Secret Service start stealing pens, and that I would end up not hearing about it. So, does this comparison really hold up?

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Couric Proves ItThursday, July 13th, 2006

Couric Proves It
Thursday, July 13th, 2006