"How to Completely Miss the Boat", by Katie Couric

Attention all journalism students! Don't do this!

Katie Couric was at a popular Manhattan eatery recently on her way back to her $15 million dollar a year anchor job at CBS when she noticed a bunch of news paparazzi hovering around it. When she asked one of the photographers who the fuss was all about, she was told A-Rod was inside eating. Our Katie pressed her face up against the window to get her own first hand look catching the eye of A-Rod, who waved her in to join him.
(Tuesday, 7/15/08 New York Post, page 5)

Does Katie, a celebrated "journalist" earn her pay and take him up on the offer to snag an exclusive with the most sought after celebrity of our day?

No. She waved him off waltzed away, probably late for her nail appointment before going back to work.

Now, let's review. A-Rod has been all over the news about (1) his divorce with C-Rod, (2) possible fling with Madonna, (3) secret trist(s) with strippers, some of whom have already hinted at such a thing but have never admitted to it directly.

What was Katie thinking? Clearly, she wasn't. She obviously missed "Barbara Walters Day" at Columbia.

Even I, not a journalist, took out a videocamera from my trunk when I was smack dab in the middle of the Big Bear earthquake several years ago while vacationing there, taping the damage first-hand, complete with producer-style interviews of the victims who gave play-by-play walk-throughs at their homes. Even though ALL roads in/out were closed of Big Bear after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake (with over $500,000 damage to the Big Bear Hotel, where I was staying), I found a way out and b-lined it CNN, KNBC, KTLA, KCOP, KABC and KCBS to sell my footage. They all jumped at the chance and I earned more money than I paid for my vacation.

Give me that $15 million dollar a year anchoring job to basically read a TelePrompTer and I promise, when a golden opportunity like the one Katie was too self-absorbed to recognize, will be had. I'd have been on my cell immediately requesting a news crew (you don't think Katie had the clout to do that?) and I would have gotten the answers to the questions straight from the horses mouth. My news director would be my friend because an exclusive "Must See TV" moment on that night's newscast and my Promotions Dept. would have something exciting to do.

But not our Katie.

I wonder what color nail polish she chose.

Ron Maestri
www.ronmaestri.com