The TV Zone

Well, it's pretty much official (if you can call the Huffington Post's readers an approximation of "official") but there's nothing Katie Couric can do that will make anyone happy.

I read with mounting amusement and then mounting alarm the comment stream posted on the site that addressed her trip to Iraq; readers were bugged (really bugged) by the fact that her reporting seemed to side with the official U.S. position, and then took the opportunity to describe her in terms best left unprinted anywhere.

Fact is, Katie's trip so far does present both the drawbacks and advantages to big footing a story, even as big as this one. Foremost, Katie's Sunday chat with Bob Schieffer of course offered nothing that Lara Logan couldn't have said, though Logan almost certainly would NOT have taken the Allawi Market-guided tour that Gen. David Petraeus gives to Baghdad newbies to prove that the Situation in Iraq is Improving. "This market seems to be thriving...," said Katie, as we see a shot of her in full metal jacket.

Meanwhile, "The Evening News” (Monday) and “Early Show” (Tuesday) were topped with Katie's Bush interview, while emailed excerpts followed. The interview was what you'd expect - spin - and Katie asked the right questions, but the HP readers should hate this one as well.

Meanwhile, the other networks had interviews as well, but – of course – why should CBS let us know about those as well.?

Promoting the Bush chat, CBS had Couric talk with Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post. Here’s an excerpt from the story:

“In a phone conversation Sunday from Baghdad, Couric said she better understands the frustrations facing U.S. troops but believes it is unrealistic for Americans to expect ‘instant results’ from Bush's military surge. Offering a decidedly mixed picture of an unpopular war, Couric called Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, a ‘straight shooter’ and said the escalation has produced ‘positive things’ in some parts of the country. But, she added, Petraeus ‘candidly admits’ that progress has been spotty.

"I said, 'Some people think this is a dog-and-pony show while the rest of Iraq remains a nightmare,' ‘ said a tired-sounding Couric, recounting her conversation with Petraeus. ‘He said, 'Yup, that's true, but does that mean we shouldn't show you where things are going well?' "

If the whole point of this trip is to get disaffected viewers to re-sample Couric, then the last thing CBS wants to have them re-sample is a downbeat, negative, nattering nabob who insists that the glass is half empty as opposed half full. So Katie's taking the half-full approach: "It makes you so proud of our U.S. servicemen and women...," she said of the heat-tortured troops on Sunday.

Fact is, maybe CBS can use this trip as a template for something it should have done in the first place - Get Couric on the road, away from the studio, in the field, asking questions, talking to people, working a story (wherever or whenever it may take her) and prove to the world that she is in fact a serious journalist with the requisite skills of any worthy successor to Walter Cronkite or Dan Rather. (HP readers will still hate her but does anybody care)?

All in all, a good start to year 2 on the Katie Watch.