One reporter/columnist I wish really had a weblog is the Washington Post‘s TV columnist Lisa de Moraes. Yesterday, Moraes zinged the “Today” show’s Katie Couric for crossing the line into advocacy at the end of a taped interview with relatives of confessed child killer Andrea Yates.
Katie Couric doesn’t need to leave the “Today” show and join the talk-show circuit to do on-air advocacy work on controversial subjects, Ã la Oprah or Rosie. She’s already doing it on “Today.”
Yesterday morning, for instance, at the end of a taped interview with the mother and brother of confessed child murderer Andrea Yates, Couric told viewers where to send contributions to the Texas woman’s defense fund; the address also appeared onscreen.
A “Today” show spokesperson told Moraes that the inclusion of the information didn’t represent advocacy, but the network clipped the defense fund information when it rebroadcast the segment later in the day.
Personally, I just don’t understand these morning shows. My wife likes them, but I find watching them to be an experience on par with visiting the dentist. Such shows tend to encapsulate all of the worst trends in television journalism and then take it to the next level of banality.