Courtesy of Ben Armbruster (Think Progress, 2/9/09), generally right-leaning media “critic” Howard Kurtz displays a total lack of self-reflection when, after discussing the sexism Katie Couric faced “as the first woman to anchor a network news program,”
Kurtz then asked Couric if her new hairstyle has something to do with her most recent successes:
KURTZ: We’re going to put up some pictures of you over the years, and I’m going to ask you whether you think at all a factor in your recent success could be this new hairstyle.
Couric’s response was sharp: “You know, you should ask Charlie Gibson about how heâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s changed his part a little bit, or how Brian looks more tan on the air”–but who can tell if that jibe managed to pierce Kurtz’s sometimes unreliable mind.
Y’know, I’d applaud Couric’s umbrage … if she were an actual journalist.
(Not that the fellas she named … or most anyone else in the corpress … is.)
Well, I will anyway … since she was calling Kurtz on his sexist horseshit.
But the sad fact is that, if you’re female … and to a lesser extent and in a much different context, male … how you look affects how you fare in this society, doesn’t it?
And Couric knows this … which is why she probably is more concerned about the appearance of her hair than the integrity of her work.
I think that’s a safe assumption, given what we see every weekday evening … don’t you?