#155, Katie Courage

Oh Katie. I thought I knew ye. But I guess not. The other night I saw a news clip of Katie Couric, of Today show fame. She was apparently helping Habitat for Humanity construct prefab buildings for the Hurricane victims. That’s when the story went desperately, insidiously wrong.
Katie, not Kathryn not Kate, Couric, as everyone knows, is a former cheerleader turned serious newscaster slash talk show host. Capable of fluff or tough. Katie has been there for us through thick and thin, through all the tumults of the last 15 years. She held our hand during Di’s demise, she sat it in shock and awe during 9-11, she took us where no TV camera has gone before when she had a colonoscopy on the air to promote colon cancer awareness. That, my friends, is taking one for the team. In short, Katie is no puff muffin. She is the real thing; someone for women everywhere to aspire to.
So why did she have to do this? Apparently, the producers have decided the Today Show needs a lighter tone. Perhaps they’re worried that Good Morning America is snapping at their heels and are trying to soften Katie’s image. Here’s what I saw. The camera cuts to Katie Couric. Matt Lauer appears to be in the studio. Katie is at some place where they are building stuff. She is adorned in work clothes—Donna Karin makes work clothes doesn’t she?—and a large carpenters tool belt. She is hefting a battery-powered drill. She says: “Someone’s crazy. They should know better than to turn me loose around tools. Like this drill... at least I think it’s a drill. Tee hee.”
That’s right. Tee. Hee. The next shot shows her digging into her tool belt. “I got everything I need,” she says, “a screwdriver (she pulls out a screwdriver) some pliers, (she pulls out a pair of pliers) and most important, my compact and lipstick” (she pulls out compact and lipstick with a flourish.) Oh. My. God. I’m just a bubble-headed former cheerleader after all. Every one knows when you’re out saving humanity you can’t live without your make up. Not that sacrifice...
Way to go, Katie. You just set back the women’s movement about 45 years. Since when does a story about helping the needy require a reference to personal grooming, for pete’s sake? You know what? It’s okay to be inept with tools. It’s okay to poke fun at yourself. But it’s downright crazy, Katie, to act as if face-decorating implements have any place in your tool belt, especially when you’re supposed to be using those tools to help humanity.
Good Morning—
America, ya gotta love it.