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Katie Couric Unaware of Video Essay Plagiarism
11-Apr-2007
Written by: Jeannine Coppola
Network and news anchor embarrassed by discovery of plagiarized work.
According to Reuters, CBS Evening News anchor, Katie Couric, did not realize that her online video essay about the value of libraries, contained mostly plagiarized material. CBS announced that the April 4 installment of "Katie Couric's Notebook" was made up almost entirely of passages lifted from a Wall Street Journal column written by Jeffrey Zaslow, that was published in March.
The network's spokeswoman, Sandy Genelius, said on Tuesday that the producer responsible for Couric's piece was fired hours after the Journal contacted CBS News to report the copied material. The essay was then immediately removed from CBS News' website and a correction was put up.
Genelius claimed although the minute-long video was written in first person, with Couric reading lines such as, "I still remember when I got my first library card," Couric did not compose the piece herself and was unaware that much of it was plagiarized. Genelius stated, "She was stunned, and very upset. It's the same reaction we all had."
Katie Couric, who gained celebrity status co-hosting America's top-ranked morning show, NBC's Today, for 15 years, became the first woman solo anchor of a major U.S. evening newscast, seven months ago, on CBS, for a reported salary of $15 million a year. Even with Couric's chipper attitude, CBS continues to come in third place in ratings, behind both ABC and NBC.
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