So, NBC’s “Today Show” said goodbye to host Katie Couric today. The giggly, ultra-liberal Couric is headed for the anchor spot at the CBS Evening News, after some well deserved time off. I’m not interested in retreading any of the beefs people have with Katie. It’s all out there and, anyway, I don’t want to look mean.

Back when CBS was picking a new full-time anchor to replace the inimitable Dan Rather, Mrs. RWB made an observation that seemed to me then to be on the money, and still does. If CBS wanted a well-qualified woman to anchor their evening news program, why didn’t they offer it to Gwen Ifill — she of “The Newshour with Jim Lehrer” and “Washington Week,” on PBS?

Now, I wouldn’t argue with anyone who would maintain that the Public Broadcasting Service is inherently a liberal institution. Nevertheless, individuals who work there should be acknowledged for their excellence when deserved, and anyone who sees Gwen Ifill in action would have to concede that she is head and shoulders above the average network news person in terms of knowledge, professionalism, and at the very least a demeanor of objectivity. When refereeing a group of talking heads discussing some controversy of the day, Ifill always seems to start out by actually having a grasp of the issues involved (a rare thing in itself) and seems more often than not to ask the appropriately challenging questions of both sides in the debate, and to give fair opportunity to each side to make its case. She’s simply smarter than almost anyone on network news, and, whatever her own political opinons, she actually seems to have a reasonable understanding of the definition of balance, and some idea of what journalistic integrity might mean in practice.

CBS could have offered her the anchor position on the Evening News (of-course I don’t know if she’d take it, but it seems more than likely given the money and prestige involved) and sent a fantastic signal about the direction their news division had decided to go — rinsing off the slime of the Rather years, and investing themselves firmly in the goals of competence, substance and balance. And at the same time they would have been breaking ground by having a full-time female anchor, and a minority one to boot.

Instead, they chose another obvious mainstream media liberal, and one who is known more for fluff and for her girlish charms than for anything else.

I guess there’s only two words to say to the suits at CBS: “Message received.”

Gwen Ifill: not the new anchor of the CBS Evening News.

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