Katie Couric’s memoir, Going There, has been leaked out in dribs and drabs, and all of the excerpts are appalling. There are layers to the offense: Couric’s words are genuinely offensive, as she seems to still be an out-of-touch Mean Girl who hates women and capes for sexual predators like Matt Lauer. The other layer of offensive is that as she was writing the book, she didn’t seem to understand how bad she sounded and how people would be appalled by her “story.” Her promotion for the memoir thus far has been Couric trying to do damage control on her own words, because clearly it’s too late to rewrite the damn book. So we’re supposed to forget about how Couric actually admitted (in the book) that she had knowledge of Lauer sexually harassing women in the NBC offices, and she’s trying to change the subject about how she was super-stunned to learn that Lauer is actually this vile predator. So… Couric was on the Today Show this morning and she said many words:
(I enjoy the fact that Savannah Guthrie seems to be SEETHING in that video.)
Here’s part of what Couric said to Today:
Tuesday, reflecting on when the news broke of sexual harassment allegations against her on-air partner of nine years, Couric said on Today that it was “really, really hard, and it took me a long time to process what was going on.”
“The side of Matt I knew was the side of Matt I think you all knew. He was kind, generous, considerate, a good colleague,” she said. “As I got more information and learned more about what was going on behind the scenes. And then I did some of my own reporting, talked to people, tried to excavate what had been going on. It was really devastating and also disgusting.”
“I think what I realized is that there was a side of Matt I never really knew. I tried to understand why he behaved the way he did, and why he was so reckless, and callous, and honestly abusive to other women,” Couric said, adding that they have “no relationship” today.
On one side, it’s not Katie Couric’s “fault” that Matt Lauer was and is a predator who raped, harassed and abused women. That is his sh-t. And on that side, Couric is right about the “permissive” atmosphere – NBC News, like all newsrooms, is a boys club set up to protect men. Lauer was long considered “the reason” why people tuned into Today, so NBC News gave him implicit permission to do whatever he wanted. But on the other side of all of that… Couric had knowledge of some (not all) of Lauer’s predatory behavior. And instead of using HER power to protect her female coworkers, she did nothing. And then gloated about Lauer’s victims’ humiliation in her book. And now she’s trying to rewrite her own appalling memoir as she does promotion.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, screencap from Today.
She most likely had sex with him and knows exactly what he’s like. It just worked for her so she stayed silent.
Many people don’t want to sell their soul for success, she obviously can’t imagine what that’s like.
If he wanted to sleep with her I can’t think of a scenario where she could have said “No” and kept her job.
I dub Katie “The Queen of Karens” and her behavior & bio has shown that she EARNED that moniker
Lol- she really is. This whole dumpster fire shows her lack of self-awareness. She is a garbage person but the fact that all of this mess is self-created because she chose to reveal it is absolutely hilarious.
First, how odd the interview is set up with Katie in a short chair and Savannah on a bar height one. Is that normal for this show? The interviewer towering over the interviewee? Second, yuck at how Katie tried to turn Savannah’s question back on her as if to make Savannah somehow a part of Katie not looking out for other women at NBC.
That struck me as well. Really a pointed jab at Savannah barely disguised as being nice.
The stool height is the exactly the same… Katie is simply shorter than Savannah.
It seems like Couric or her PR team realized that the book is a dumpster fire, hot problematic mess and they are backpedaling on everything.
Yeah this was a set up for Katie to try to douse the dumpster fire she started. The role needed a hard hitting journalist asking uncomfortable questions and have Katie answer them in a way that clears her AND COLLEAGUES. So Savannah dusts off her white house hard-hitting reporter persona and plays her part showing that the NEW gang at Today holds the old gang under Andy Lack accountable. This bit of theater doesn’t work, both Lauer and Katie are reprehensible. Keep them off the air, I wasn’t buying it then or now.
Omg, is she still talking? And what does she mean, “I did some of my own reporting…”? Maybe she means it as “investigating ” but part of reporting is to actually report and I haven’t seen anywhere that she took the results of her investigation to HR or the higher-ups.
It is painful, but I’m glad this is underscoring that Matt Lauer is a serial sexual predator. No come-back for that m-fer. Let him stay underground forever, if not in prison.
AFA Katie… what IS the story she was trying to tell with this book? Like Kaiser said, it’s too late to rewrite it but I really am curious as to what she actually thought she was doing? To be a fly on that wall…
Mm, just as there was a side to Katie Couric that none of us knew. Except the unfortunate women who had to work with her.
Wow. I feel like Matt and Katie and Al were solidly part of my morning for a decade—but sheesh she always bordered on annoying: too chipper, too confident, not a great listener imho. (And always showing a lot of leg to distraction for someone purporting to be a very serious journalist.)
There has been so much toxic drama at Today. First the obvious and painful-to-watch poor treatment of Ann Curry by Matt, then the reveal of Matt as sexual predator, now Katie reveals she always had been the tone-deaf narcissistic mean girl in her own memoir. Yes, so Katie the signs were always there and now we actually know because you’ve used your own words to tell us who you really are.
Savannah clearly is seething/annoyed. Wondering if that was Savannah’s call to not be seated next to her? Like: I’ll do this interview but we are not going to chum it up in club chairs.
Katie is no Hoda, that’s for sure.
I think Savannah was the wrong person to do the interview. She was as complicit as everyone else was with the exception of Meredith Vierra.
Savanah had worked there for years so she had to have known what Matt was like. She had no problem with the way Ann Curry was treated by Matt Lauer. It was so obvious to anyone that watched the show how terribly he treated Ann Curry. Savannah has no credibility in my opinion. That’s why it was so easy for Katie to keep turning it back on Savannah by saying “You know what it was like”
She also came back from maternity leave early because Meghan Kelly was filling in for her and she was afraid of losing her job.
I wish that someone other than Savannah had done the interview.
Everything you said. Savannah is still there standing next to Al Roker. As a woman who survived, and was hand picked by Lauer, she watched other women fall around her. How much did she know? Katie is no saint, but Savannah was the wrong choice, and I like her. Too personal.
In college, I worked on a research job with a woman working toward becoming a TV reporter. She once shared that she learned a lot about what it was going to take as an intern in a southern CA city. The big name anchor asked her if her “sheets matched the curtains”. She was gorgeous and had long, blond hair. She was about 20 at the time. She stayed, batting all of those creeps away as they openly Joked about sex. She finished her internship by playing it off and not being intimidated. That’s how you survive that. Or you fuck. Targets do that, too. I walked away from jobs when that happened (I do not work in TV or entertainment).
Katie knows how it is. How dare she tour this book. She needs to crawl into another cave like Matt Lauer. History has been kind to Curry and Viera for a reason: they have character. Couric has none.
It was a “rumor” that a top male anchor had a key to a secret room? Of course it was Matt Lauer! None of us work there and we knew that.
What a mysogynystic biatch.
That was weird for me too. I like Savannah but she was not the right person for the interview. She is far too close to the situation to provide any insight or challenge Katie’s points.
I remember when I was a new, young nurse in a prominent hospital. A couple of the doctors were well known gropers, always ready to whisper in an ear or tell a gross joke. Meanwhile they’re beloved by the patients, administrators, fund raisers and on tv as experts. They were charming and on top of their field, heroes who saved lives…….etc etc. We nurses looked out for one another but we had no power or confidence. I truly believe the nurse administrator could have done more, lots more. That said, I am not the person to engage in that discussion with her. We all whispered behind closed doors and strategized on how to avoid this crap.
Ha! I loved that moment when she tried to pull Savannah in to be on her side, ‘You know what I mean?’ and turn the interview into a friendly conversation. But Savannah wasn’t having it, totally ignored that and moved on to the next question.
And what the heck is this, blaming Matt’s abusive behavior ‘on the times’? Attitudes might have been slightly different, but he was a rapist then and is a rapist now. The ‘times’ aren’t the cause of people’s behavior. The only difference is now he has less opportunity and it’s harder for him to get away with it.
I watch the Today show every morning, because I work from home, so I have it on basically from 7a through 11a and I watched all three segments of her interview this morning. What was interesting to me was all three different interviewers appeared to not side (or even like!) with Katie on any of this, so whether or not you like Savannah (which I happen to like her), but I love Hoda and I like Shenielle as well (I know I’ve spelled this incorrectly), they weren’t buying her BS either and you could tell it from their tone, facial expressions and body language. Katie tried that ole “c’mon gals, you know how it is” with those ladies as well, and they just moved right on to the next question. There was no warm and fuzzy with anyone. Katie sucks.
Then if you get on the comments of the Today show on FB or Insta, it’s amazing to me how many people out there just love Katie and are saying that Savannah was too tough on her…sigh. My husband doesn’t read any of this stuff, but he said she always seemed fake to him, he never cared for her either.
Imagine being so thirsty that you try to get attention by bringing up Matt Lauer?
She needs to take herself over to Fox for interviews. They’ve got all the time in the world for predators and the women who support them.
didnt she admit he’d pinch her behind while on watch what happens live?
She knew. She just chose to not know.
Wow. I’ll give her credit for her large brass balls. She had to know these women would not be having her happy-clappy bullsh*t.
She looks like a completely different person in that last picture. Botox to freshen up her look before the big book tour?
One problem for women who rose to the top during the great misogynistic days of yore is that their clubs have been infiltrated and are slowly but surely getting out of the harassment business. Boys will boys isn’t a cutie little giggle anymore and locker room talk does indeed have ears. Time to pay the piper, and complicit orbiting females are not getting any more free rides. Put that in your pipe and smoke it KC
#DamageControl Too late, we see you for the POS you really are. #ByeFelicia
Couric is basic. She complains that no once came to her when they were being harassed. Maybe they didn’t think you would do anything about it Katie? Or you weren’t seen as sympathetic which is very very easy to believe.