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worldlibraries 's review for:
Going There
by Katie Couric
Wow, I listened to this on audio and had no idea it was 736 pages long. I'm not sure I would have picked it up to read if I had known it was that long! It was 15 hours and 27 minutes long.
I had much of the same feeling listening to Katie Couric's Going There as I did when I listened to Barack Obama's first volume of his memoirs. Because I saw many of the moments referred to in each book on TV, I felt like I already knew about them and there wasn't as much to learn from their recounting as I had hoped. I often asked myself, 'is this worth the time investment?' I realized I saw many of the TODAY show moments, but not many of the CBS anchored newscasts past that first one that was 'a step forward for women.'
When the book got interesting was when Katie was introspective and reflective. I appreciated Katie cringing at her white person lack of awareness of what Black people experience in every day life when she looked back at her Rodney King coverage. Been there, Katie, done that. I think many white people can understand your cluelessness. I hope we've all become more knowledgable about what being Black in the USA is like.
I appreciated Katie's regret that she 'covered' for Ruth Bader Ginsburg not understanding Colin Kaepernick and what his actions were for. It may have been good for the country if RBG's cluelessness was public, because it could have forced a conversation with her about when a strategic time to retire would be. As it was, RBG, must have loved being RBG a little too much. She did not consider her side's needs in addition to her own and retire during the Obama administration.
I also don't think many people could outline in a book how their husband had a lonely death because they was too busy thinking about how to help him live, to be emotionally available to help him die. Katie painted that portrait of his death so clearly and that took incredible courage to share that. Someone will have a better death in their family because they heard Katie describe that and sense that she wishes she had done it differently.
The most stunning story was when she was trying to help her youngest daughter, Carrie, feel close to her dad (that she never got to know because he died when Carrie was two years old), by taking her on a tour of places where he had lived. Places such as Katie and Jay's first second home, meeting his friends, and going through reenactment gear with Jay's Civil War reenactors. Already wrinkling her nose at the idea of her Dad as a Civil War reenactor, Carrie gamely met two of the reenactors and went through a trunk full of Confederate gear with them. The mood in the room instantly changed when Katie's phone blew up with news of a shooting at a synagogue. 'Oh, that's fake news designed to take our guns away,' the Civil War reenactors said. It wasn't bad enough that they were saying that to the face of a mainstream media news anchor, but they were simultaneously, unknowingly robbing young Carrie of admiration for her father. As Katie put it, the question hung in the air on the drive away, would Jay have grown or would he have ended up like these men? Unfortunately, death captures your views and fosssilizes them. There is no room for personal growth. He was stuck with views from the slave state of Virginia, with the (at-that-time) unquestioned lost cause narrative of an overromantacized Civil War in his head, with an enthusiasm for his daughters to one day join the Daughters of the Confederacy. You could literally feel the emotional recoil and repugnance of the two women in the conversation when the men called the Pittsburg synagogue shooting 'fake news.'
Katie is very much a part of the corporate overlords. You are not going to get journalism that overthrows the status quo from her. I just keep an awareness of the corporate nature of her news and trust her to deliver that view. She is so much a part of it, that I was astonished to find not much introspection about how she so ably thrived there. After all, there are lots of beautiful women, with lovely smiles, plus the journalism chops, how was it she survived that shart tank?
I hope Katie pulls a Dan Rather and keeps reporting into her eighties. It's a real step forward for women having active, exciting, older women continuing to be in media. Look at Pat Mitchell, Christiane Amanpour, and Gayle King still slaying. To make that happen, one thing every supportive woman can do is follow Katie on Twitter or LinkedIn. Increase her audience. The more older women in media the better. Normalize aging and vibrant intermixed.
I had much of the same feeling listening to Katie Couric's Going There as I did when I listened to Barack Obama's first volume of his memoirs. Because I saw many of the moments referred to in each book on TV, I felt like I already knew about them and there wasn't as much to learn from their recounting as I had hoped. I often asked myself, 'is this worth the time investment?' I realized I saw many of the TODAY show moments, but not many of the CBS anchored newscasts past that first one that was 'a step forward for women.'
When the book got interesting was when Katie was introspective and reflective. I appreciated Katie cringing at her white person lack of awareness of what Black people experience in every day life when she looked back at her Rodney King coverage. Been there, Katie, done that. I think many white people can understand your cluelessness. I hope we've all become more knowledgable about what being Black in the USA is like.
I appreciated Katie's regret that she 'covered' for Ruth Bader Ginsburg not understanding Colin Kaepernick and what his actions were for. It may have been good for the country if RBG's cluelessness was public, because it could have forced a conversation with her about when a strategic time to retire would be. As it was, RBG, must have loved being RBG a little too much. She did not consider her side's needs in addition to her own and retire during the Obama administration.
I also don't think many people could outline in a book how their husband had a lonely death because they was too busy thinking about how to help him live, to be emotionally available to help him die. Katie painted that portrait of his death so clearly and that took incredible courage to share that. Someone will have a better death in their family because they heard Katie describe that and sense that she wishes she had done it differently.
The most stunning story was when she was trying to help her youngest daughter, Carrie, feel close to her dad (that she never got to know because he died when Carrie was two years old), by taking her on a tour of places where he had lived. Places such as Katie and Jay's first second home, meeting his friends, and going through reenactment gear with Jay's Civil War reenactors. Already wrinkling her nose at the idea of her Dad as a Civil War reenactor, Carrie gamely met two of the reenactors and went through a trunk full of Confederate gear with them. The mood in the room instantly changed when Katie's phone blew up with news of a shooting at a synagogue. 'Oh, that's fake news designed to take our guns away,' the Civil War reenactors said. It wasn't bad enough that they were saying that to the face of a mainstream media news anchor, but they were simultaneously, unknowingly robbing young Carrie of admiration for her father. As Katie put it, the question hung in the air on the drive away, would Jay have grown or would he have ended up like these men? Unfortunately, death captures your views and fosssilizes them. There is no room for personal growth. He was stuck with views from the slave state of Virginia, with the (at-that-time) unquestioned lost cause narrative of an overromantacized Civil War in his head, with an enthusiasm for his daughters to one day join the Daughters of the Confederacy. You could literally feel the emotional recoil and repugnance of the two women in the conversation when the men called the Pittsburg synagogue shooting 'fake news.'
Katie is very much a part of the corporate overlords. You are not going to get journalism that overthrows the status quo from her. I just keep an awareness of the corporate nature of her news and trust her to deliver that view. She is so much a part of it, that I was astonished to find not much introspection about how she so ably thrived there. After all, there are lots of beautiful women, with lovely smiles, plus the journalism chops, how was it she survived that shart tank?
I hope Katie pulls a Dan Rather and keeps reporting into her eighties. It's a real step forward for women having active, exciting, older women continuing to be in media. Look at Pat Mitchell, Christiane Amanpour, and Gayle King still slaying. To make that happen, one thing every supportive woman can do is follow Katie on Twitter or LinkedIn. Increase her audience. The more older women in media the better. Normalize aging and vibrant intermixed.