You've got to feel a little sorry for the NBC folks. They have a telephone press conference today to celebrate
"Today's" 10 straight years atop the morning news ratings, and you know every reporter only wants to ask Katie Couric about the stories that CBS is willing to break the bank to make her the next nightly news anchor.
The New York Observer is reporting that "the dollar figure it would take to get Ms. Couric to take over for fill-in anchor Bob Schieffer is rumored to be around $20 million a year, with a contract length of seven years." (My God, that's
A-Rod and
Manny kind of money.)
So before the Q&A even starts Couric says: "In terms of my own future...I just thought I'd say off the bat that my contract ends in May and I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do...There really is nothing to announce and nothing to report."
Fair enough. But then, of course, the second question is about the possibility that Couric will be leaving NBC. "I think I answered that question at the top of the call," she says icily. "I'm not discussing this."
For those sifting through the tea leaves for hints of Katie's intentions, there wasn't much this morning. But maybe conspiracy theorists could take her admission that "sometimes I think we did Laci Peterson or Michael Jackson ad nauseum" on the "Today" show as perhaps an attempt to burnish her serious news credentials.