You guys are nuts about Katie Couric - and wrong

I'm saying this not to be popular here. I know the overwhelming sentiment.

Straight out – you detractors can't be more wrong about her. Especially the interview she ran tonight with Valerie Wilson.

I loved the interview, and the tone and pitch were perfect. Damn close. Valerie absolutely shone, because (1) she's got a strength and beauty that made her shine and (2) the questions from Couric were on target and designed to bring out Wilson's views, her protests and indignities.

A good MSM interviewer, who wouldn't come across as a partisan advocate and uni-directed like a blogger tries to (like I try to be), will lob a couple of questions of the kind that a detractor would pose. Sure, when that happens, it's a bland, milquetoast kind of question. But usually it brings out an answer that's surprising, that grabs you and makes you root for 1 side or the other (for Plame Wilson or for Libby and Cheney).

Katie as an interviewer is a fairly good one. Going back to Today. She interviewed some prime ministers over the years and gave strong interviews. No, I don't remember the details.

But before I was an internet news junkie, I was a tv and newspaper news junkie. A true addict.  I never was well, high, on Couric as much as I was, I would say, satisfied with her. Her point of view was generally trustworthy. Her tack too.

She is in a little over her head for awhile. And who wouldn't be? The pressure is intense, the pressure for change in format was somewhat misbegotten.

I hope she can grow into the shoes in awhile. I never have seen either Brian Williams, Gibson or Rather win me over in a big way. Jennings rang most true. I miss him.

The right-wing had a collective hissyfit the moment Couric was chosen to succeed Rather. That should tell you something. And they are reveling in her struggle.   Maybe you should not.