LCB: Finally, Katie Couric’s move to CBS has inspired a lot of talk about what it takes to anchor the news in the evening, and one word that inevitably comes up is “gravitas.” What is it and do you have it?
JL: I have to let other people decide that.
LCB: How would you define it?
JL: I don’t know what it means.
LCB: Is it a necessary ingredient to anchor the evening news?
JL: I don’t know. … I’ll leave that for others to talk about. That’s not my subject. I started as a print reporter. I’m a journalist and that’s what I do. My function is an anchorperson, but it’s in a journalism context, and gravitas and coats and ties and haircuts and all that sort of stuff, I’ll leave to others. My thing is just to do my job the best way I know how and as I say I’m very fortunate to be able to do it the way I want to do it.
LCB: What qualities do you bring to it, then?
JL:You’ll have to ask other people that. Look, I’ve been doing this for 30 years. … This is it: I’m available five nights a week and have been for 30 years. For me to sit back and say, “I bring this, this and this,” forget it. I’m not going to waste my time on that sort of question. Sorry.
I see Jim has been around politicians long enough to learn to refuse any question that you don't want to answer.
Posted by MRooney on Fri 2 Jun 2006 at 05:58 PM
Incredibly lame. Obscenely lame. He says he's not a man who judges, but he will call a question stupid or a waste of time in a heartbeat.
His program might be awesome, but clearly he doesn't like speculation. I suppose I can understand that ... but he comes off as pretty defensive. No such thing as an innocent question as far as he's concerned.
Posted by jdorsey on Fri 2 Jun 2006 at 08:26 PM