"Now...this"

I know that I'm about to commit the blogging equivalent of what Postman called the, "Now...this" seque. In fact, he spent an entire chapter talking about what he called, the "Now...this" worldview in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death.

You see, I want to blog about Meredith Viera, Katie's replacement on The Today Show and more precisely, Meredith Viera's blog.

While I was never much of a fan of Katie Couric, I used to find it amusing how so many men, particularly conservative men, could hurl so much vitriol and venom poor Katie's way. I guess when you host a show so amazingly popular and watched by millions, especially millions of women, apparently that's enough to get you hated by the knuckle-draggers of America.

When Katie made the switch over to her new position, as the CBS Nightly News anchor, my wife insisted that we watch her first night and subsequent nights afterwards, for at least a week. It was then that I actually felt somewhat bad for her; almost sympathetic, as she obviously was trying to hard to make it work.

Recently, I watched her do her nightly half hour and I think she's relaxed enough and almost looks comfortable. My wife thinks she made a mistake, however and I'm inclined to agree. I do respect her, however, for making an honest attempt to at changing her modus operandi later in her work career, something I can certainly identify with, on some basic level. But I'm not here to talk about Kaie. No, I'm here to talk about her successor, Meredith Viera.

Meredith Viera has a blog. While it would be natural to think that someone is probably "ghostwriting" Meredith's daily posts, according to something I heard somewhere (NPR?), she actually does her own writing and is enjoying doing the blog, after first thinking it would be just a bunch of "busywork."

While it would be easy to write off Viera, after her recent stint as moderator on "The View" and her current gig as host of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," Viera actually has a career vitae that includes hard news and journalism, having worked on 60 Minutes, Turning Point and CBS News. You see, unlike the bimbos that Fox pays to read teleprompters, with their collagen enhanced lips and other accoutrements, Viera actually does have some credibility and talent for reporting. In fact, Viera created a bit of a fuss in some news circles, after having marched in an anti-war demonstration and then, talking about it on "The View," saying that the "war was built on lies."

Meredith's piece on getting to dance with the Radio City Rockettes was actually very personal and showed her human side, which should help her win the women over who will ultimately decide whether Viera can emerge from Katie's shadow and carve out her own unique niche as the new must-see maven of the morning.