May the best man or woman win

I just read this interview with Linda Mason, senior vice president, standards and special projects at CBS News. Mason says people are not ready to accept the evening news from a woman anchor.

Here's what she says in the interview: I'm just surprised at how, almost 30 years after I worked on the "Evening News" as the first woman producer, that Katie is having such a tough time being accepted by the public, which seems to prefer the news from white guys, and now that Charlie's doing so well, from older white guys. I guess they want the reassurance of a Walter Cronkite.

I am a woman, I am not white, and I didn't grow up watching Walter Cronkite's newscasts. But I do love news and I tune into the evening newscast everytime I am at home. And because I don't have cable TV, I have to choose between Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams and Katie Couric.

My choice? Charlie Gibson followed by Brian Williams.

I did watch Katie Couric a few times and I thought the news was really bad. Couric seemed to have this faux earnestness in the way she looked into the camera. The soft lighting around her seemed to turn me off. And the worst, was the choice of news items.

There were some terrible features and too many 'women-oriented' issues that looked like what Couric cared about and not what appealed to me.

I think Linda Mason is wrong to make this an issue about Katie Couric being a woman on the job. It's about being the best on the job. And sometimes, if the best is a older white male, then let's not make it a gender issue.