8A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
TELEVISION
FRIDAY, APRIL 7. 2006
Couric leads way
'Today' host may open doors for women
BY JOCELYN NOVEUG
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — When people used to ask Connie Chung if a woman would ever get to anchor the network evening news all by herself, she'd say: "Not in my lifetime."
Now Chung, very much alive, calls Katie Couric's move to CBS "a watershed moment." And she's not the only one who confesses to feeling a shiver of pride. From women's rights leaders like Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Smeal to ordinary TV viewers to Couric's own 10-year-old daughter, a lot of people think her history-making ascension to
sole anchordom
is a pretty big
deal.
There are serious caveats, of course. One is that it took more than half a century for a woman to cross the final frontier
in TV news. And fewer and fewer people are watching network news anyway. And finally, CBS is dead last in the evening news race — the main reason it needed to lure Couric, after all.
But all that isn't enough to spoil the happiness of Steinem, perhaps this country's most recognizable feminist, who chooses instead to imagine the sight of Couric assuming that anchor chair on her first night.
"One thing is sure," said Steinem. "Women and girls will have their first vision of a female network anchor who is an authority on her own. Since we learn by example, there's no telling where that iconic image may lead."
And all that talk of "perky" vs. "gravitas"? Besides the point, Steinem said. "I think she will give us back what we haven't had since Walter Cronkite — a trusted messenger who conveys the human meaning of the news."
AP file photo
A smiling Barbara Walters chats with co-host Harry Reasoner following her debut as the nation's first female anchorwoman on ABC's evening news program in New York in 1976. When she moves to CBS, Katie Couric will become network television's first solo female news anchor. She joins a list of women anchors. Walters tops the list but lasted only from 1976 to 1978, when the pairing was discontinued because of low ratings.
Cheer up, kiddo
Allyson Flores, 10,
reacts to an answer that
one of her teammates
gave on
Thursday. She was at the
Wood County
Educational Service Center
Elementary School
Quiz Bowl at Elmwood
High School in Jerry City,
Ohio.
J. D. Pooley/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NYC police officers caught with Mafia
BY LARRY MCSHANE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CRIME
NEW YORK - Two highly decorated former detectives were convicted Thursday of moonlighting as hit men for the mob in one of the most sensational cases of police corruption in New York history.
Louis Eppolito, 57, and Steven Caracappa, 64, could get life in prison for their roles in eight murders committed between 1986 and 1990 while they were simultaneously on the payroll of both the New York Police Department and Luchese crime family under boss Anthony "Gaspi" Casso.
Prosecuters told the two men carried out two hits themselves — after pulling the victims over in traffic stops — and delivered up some of the other victims to
Federal prosecutor Daniel Wenner described the case as "the bloodiest, most violent betrayal of the badge this city has ever seen."
Federal prosecutor Daniel Wenner described the case as "the bloodiest, most violent betrayal of the badge this city has ever seen."
the Mafia to be killed.
Neither defendant showed any emotion during the 10 minutes it took the jury forewoman to reply "proven" 70 times to the racketeering acts they were accused of. The verdict was reached after two days of deliberations.
The defendants' $5 million bail was revoked and they were led off to jail to await sentencing May 22. The men's lawyers said they would appeal.
Prosecutors said the two used their law enforcement positions to help the Mafia at a price of $4,000 per month — more if they personally handled a killing. They earned $65,000 for one of those slayings, prosecutors said.