Bye Bye Katie

By Peter Wehner

It’s official: Katie Couric is stepping down as anchor of the CBS Evening News.

A generation ago, this would have been a huge event; today, it’s essentially a yawn. I follow politics far more closely than most Americans – and I don’t think I’ve ever watched Ms. Couric anchor the CBS Evening News. Not even once. And aside from Couric’s interview with Sarah Palin in 2008, I can’t think of a segment that was on the program that ever created a ripple, or even generated a comment. It isn’t that her show was bad (I have no way of knowing); it’s that it was irrelevant.

One other thing: Ms. Couric made her announcement official in an exclusive interview with… People magazine. And if you go to the link, you’ll find this at the bottom:

For more from Couric’s exclusive interview – including details of her life with longtime boyfriend Brooks Perlin and whether there may be wedding bells in her future – pick up PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

That doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about the state of the media in our time, but it does tell you something.