KATIE COURIC: Bigotry in high heels

When it comes to outright bigotry, NBC's David "Gay Gene" Gregory—whom we spotlighted here last week—can't hold a candle to his fellow NBCer and pretender to the CBS nightly news anchor job: Katie "Perky" Couric. It's just that her particular form of bigotry–anti-Christian—is not so politically incorrect as some other forms. For, after all, Christians are the last minority group whom it is socially acceptable to slur, slander and otherwise discriminate with impunity. And to the tune of $11-12 million dollars a year.

We refer, of course, to her naked assertions—disguised as an interview question—that the Christian right was directly responsible for gay-boy Matthew Shepherd's 1998 beating death in Wyoming, presumably by homophobes riled up by such Christians. She specifically named the Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family—notorious rogue outfits, all. Don Hodel, then-president and CEO of Focus on the Family (and a former Reagan cabinet member), decried Couric's remarks as "religion-baiting at its worst."

Well, golly. Lo and behold, several years later it comes out that, well, maybe it wasn't really homophobia after all, but a robbery-motivated crime by a couple of amphetamine-crazed toughs looking for money for their next fix. One of them, in fact, admitted as much. So, of course, Mr. Hodel, et al., thought they'd show the world how much class Kaite Couric and NBC possessed and asked for an apology. Being accused of responsibility for someone's violent death is not something most of us take lightly.

They're still waiting. And it's clear for all to see how much class Katie Couric and NBC have. Which is to say, zero times zero. This infamous exchange of communiqués occurred shortly after the November 2004 re-election of George W. Bush as America's 43rd president, which occasioned this remark from Hodel:

"On election night, some network news anchors seemed to struggle to understand the moral groundswell so evident in the returns on Nov. 2. May I suggest that a reaction against the elites in our culture, especially the big media, had something to do with the forceful expression of traditional values that day? Media elites speak often about tolerance, but may not realize that they seldom seem to express tolerance toward those they don't understand, particularly conservative Christian people. Katie Couric's ugly insinuation is a good example."

Oh, so much Perky and so little time. Fasten your seatbelts. It's gonna be a fast week. . .