Katie Couric: CBS Just Replaced a Woman With 2 Men

Norah O'Donnell's replacements show network is 'out of touch' at a 'potentially historic' time
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 13, 2024 7:39 AM CDT
Katie Couric Calls Out CBS for Replacing Woman With 2 Men
This combination photo shows Maurice DuBois, left, and John Dickerson. DuBois and Dickerson will co-anchor the “CBS Evening News” following the departure of Norah O'Donnell later this year, the network said Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024.   (AP Photo)

Katie Couric is calling out her former employer, CBS, for replacing Norah O'Donnell, the lead anchor on CBS Evening News, with two men. O'Donnell is just the third woman to solo anchor a network evening newscast following ABC's Diane Sawyer and Couric, per USA Today. She announced last month that she would be stepping down after five years in the anchor chair to transition to a new role as senior correspondent following the November elections. She'll be replaced by the Daily Report's John Dickerson and CBS New York's Maurice Du Bois—a move Couric calls "more than a little disappointing" in a New York Times op-ed.

Couric applauds O'Donnell for being the "driving force" behind stories "that were especially important to women, such as sexual assault in the military" and "the long-term effects of Covid on women." She adds "it's odd and more than a little out of touch" to decide "the leading editorial decision makers will mostly be men ... in the midst of a campaign that could result in the election of the first woman president." This "potentially historic story ... needs a diverse group of journalists covering it," Couric writes, noting "male writers occasionally have blind spots." She describes how a male colleague once wrote "subtly sexist" copy about Hillary Clinton, and under her direction, "we rewrote it."

"Don't get me wrong: I know, like and respect these two journalists," Couric writes of Dickerson and Du Bois. "But soon, on the big three networks, there will be four male anchors." What's more, behind the scenes, CBS Evening News is run by "three White men: Bill Owens, Guy Campanile and Jerry Cipriano," the latter of whom writes most of the scripts, Couric writes. She suggests CBS' decision may be intended to please evening news' "aging audience." "But more than half of the viewing population should still demand more from the industry," she adds. "Until then, once again, nightly network newscasts are the purview of a few good men." Read the full piece here. (More Katie Couric stories.)

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