Katie Couric CBS News Anchor Will Report From Iraq and Syria

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Katie Couric, the CBS Evening News Anchor will be traveling to Iraq and Syria for the first time next week to conduct a 10-day series of reports on the war.

Couric previously expressed reservations on going into a war zone where many journalists have been injured or killed. Last year, ABC News Anchor Bob Woodruff was seriously injured by an improvised explosive device and spent nearly a year recovering from his injuries. CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier was also seriously injured in May of last year in a car-bomb attack.

Katie Couric was concerned for herself as a journalist because she is a single mom with two young children. However, Couric said she felt it was time to make the high-profile trip to get a better perspective on the war before Gen. David Petraeus, the American commander briefs Congress next month.

“We thought that as the American public is going to start hearing what the politicians and the generals start talking about, that wouldn’t it be good if we could give them some sort of grounding,” CBS News executive producer Rick Kaplan told the Los Angeles Times and who will be accompanying Couric to Iraq,

The trip will coincide with Couric’s one-year anniversary as the CBS Anchor, but since she started the job, Couric’s emphasis on softer newscast has caused the ratings to drop by 8%. As of last week, the CBS Evening News averaged a mere 6.1 million viewers a night compared with Charles Gibson Nightly News, who nabbed more than 8 million viewers.

Katie Couric will broadcast live from Iraq September 4 and 5, and then travel to Damascus, Syria for two nights.

Katie Couric follows Diane Sawyer of ABC’s Good Morning America fame who traveled to Iran earlier this year for an exclusive interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.