By Brendan McLaughlin
Somebody in CBS's control room apparently secretly taped Katie Couric as she anchored the network's New Hampshire election coverage. It's not Katie reading the election results. It's Katie being herself, kvetching about the clip-on microphone, whining a little about her scripts and using language that would get Katie in big trouble if it actually made it into the newscast. The clip is posted on satirist Harry Shearer's blog, "My Damn Channel". What's the problem with that? With at least three live cameras aimed at you, there's not exactly an expectation of privacy. Except that there is.
After sitting in the anchor chair for a few years, one develops an acute awareness of whether you are ON AIR or OFF AIR. In the latter state, which occurs during commercial breaks and taped segments, only about a half dozen people in the studio and control room are privy to your rants and blather. In this case, Couric's signal was probably up a satellite and could seen by control room technicians in any number of locations. I happy to be lucky enough to work with co-anchors and other colleagues who are fun to be with. During breaks in the newscast we gossip, tease each other and sometimes make truly inappropriate jokes. When the break is over and the red camera light comes on, we wipe the smiles off our faces and get back to the news of the day. So while there's no expectation of privacy, there is an expectation of trust and confidentiality.
Think of how you would feel having lunch with several trusted friends and then seeing a verbatim transcript of your entire conversation published in the Trib the next day. That's what happened to Katie Couric and it's not right. So why did I just post the link to the clip? Because I hope you'll look at her banal chatter for what it is- the normal unself-concious patter we put out during our work day. Harry Shearer, who I generally find to be brilliantly funny, seems to think this clip is somehow revelatory. I think it's just voyeurism at it's most boring.