Miss USA, Rachel Smith, has dissed Katie Couric during an interview when she says she wants to do modeling as well as become a reporter.
MSNBC reports:
Speaking about her future plans, the seemingly-superficial Miss Smith said, “I always wanted to be a reporter — maybe some TV. Who knows? Some serious news — but some modeling, too.” Resolute Rachel, who also described how she danced around in a hot pink Rocawear sweatsuit and her crown the night she won Miss USA, didn’t pontificate on how she intended to mix journalism with modeling. But the News reports that she was able to emphatically state, “I just don’t want to end up like Katie Couric. I want people to take me seriously.”
A Couric representative has responded:
If (Rachel Smith) continues to offer such profound insight, she will not have to worry about anyone taking her seriously.
I love it when “beauty queens” speak. Yes, modeling and reporting are, like, basically the same things. Kinda like a stripper and an astronaut. So much for these pageants trying to prove beauty contestants also have brains by answering one question - and answer smartly, too. Try to pump some brain cells in your head first before you want people to take you seriously. I can only assume Katie Couric has this to say to the genius.
I don’t think her comments were intended as a slight, but were just some ill-chosen words. Then Miss Couric’s rep overreacted and turned the proverbial molehill into a mountain. So when you think about it what did she say that’s so outrageous?
The network of Edward R. Murrow and Charles Collingwood, the network that once took on Joe McCarthy at his peak, caved to right-wing pressure and fired Dan Rather for daring to blow the whistle on our chickenhawk President’s war record and replaced him with with a lightweight cheesecake anchorwoman that can’t win the public’s respect. Couric has become a joke that’s dragged the CBS Evening News’ ratings to record lows. Rather has talked about the Evening News being “dumbed down and tarted up.” Rachel Smith is just starting her career, and she doesn’t want it to end that way; who would?
For the record, before she was Miss USA, she earned a journalism degree magna cum laude from a prestigious college. She also served an internship in the news department of a local TV station, so she’s entitled to her opinion on the subject. She’s already achieved far more than most young women her age (22), so based on her record there’s a good chance when she’s Couric’s age she’ll be taken more seriously than Couric is now.
But the fact that she’s issued a statement to the effect that Miss Couric’s always been one of her role models confirms that the whole dustup has been a misunderstanding from the start.