Couric is Correct

Access Hollywood (via the Drudge Report) sniffs that Katie Couric refuses to visit the Middle East as part of her upcoming anchor duties at CBS:

Katie Couric, who takes over the CBS Evening News in September told Access Hollywood that at this point, she would not venture into the Middle East hot spot.

"I think the situation there is so dangerous, and as a single parent with two children, that's something I won't be doing," Katie said.

While I have little love for the grossly biased Katie, and less respect for her journalistic qualifications (basically, playing cutesie kitten on Today), Katie is absolutely correct in this decision, though not for the reason she states.

A network anchor is a teleprompter reader. There was no reason for Brian Williams of NBC to spend a couple of days this week reading the teleprompter from the Middle East, rather than reading the teleprompter from NYC. It was transparent showmanship, designed to add synthetic drama to the tired old media format.