I kind of love Katie Couric’s book, “Going There.” She’s unsparing and mean to everyone. She doesn’t give a hoot. She’s had it. She’s 65, has money, is married to a rich guy, and figures, why not?
I wish I could do that.
In “Going There,” she devotes a chapter to her short stint at Yahoo News, how stupid and out of touch the people were, and how Marissa Mayer was maybe the most oblivious CEO she ever met. LOL. I get it. For years I’ve tried to make contact with people at Yahoo News only to be ignored. So Katie isn’t wrong.
At one point while she was there, Yahoo News became known as Oath, which Katie observes is close to “Oaf.” I agree.
Anyway. She says she couldn’t get Mayer to give her any resources or pay attention to her. That when Katie wanted to big names for Yahoo News, she had no leverage and that Mayer didn’t care to help her. She says when she finally had lunch with Mayer it was at the decrepit Le Bonne Soup on West 55th St., a place that should have closed in 1990. (The main media restaurant, Michael’s, is right down the street. Katie must have been fuming to meet in such a dump!)
Katie writes: “I’d later learn this was Marissa’s MO. Not returning emails (and certainly not anything as old-school as a phone call), showing up for dinners with clients when they were already on dessert, leaving powerful people waiting for hours outside her office. Apparently there was a long line of major players who’d left the sprawling Yahoo campus in Sunnyvale, California, feeling less sunny than irate.”
Mayer’s dismissive treatment of her meant Katie couldn’t get interviews with big shots like Hilary Clinton, Donald Trump, or even former Ohio governor John Kasich. On two separate occasions she tried to interview him.
Each time, Kasich asked her:
“Katie, can I ask you a question? You used to be the anchor of the CBS Evening News— now you’re with Yahoo News. What is that like for you?” Twice he did that.
Couric writes: I’d just about had it with this tool. “I don’t know, Governor Kasich,” I said. “You used to be running for president of the United States, and pretty soon you’re going to be out of a job. What is that like for you?”
Well played. I hope she really said to him, too. (PS Mayer eventually got fired for almost burning Yahoo down, and things haven’t improved since then.)
“Going There” is on sale now at independent book stores and amazon, too.
PS I hear Katie had a swell book party last night hosted by former mayor Mike Bloomberg. (Our invite was probably in spam.)
