Former NBC and CBS journalist Katie Couric this week told Americans something they probably already knew. Appearing on the June 14 Daily Show, she embraced being an “activist” for liberal causes like gun control. Speaking about her new podcast, she declared, “I run my own show and I can speak out about the need for sensible gun laws, and I can be an activist, and everyone should be an activist.”
Couric gushed that “I feel incredibly liberated” in her new role as activist podcast host. But for anyone watched her career as a journalist, she was an activist back then. One of the best examples came back on the September 29, 1997 Today.
Almost 25 years ago, celebrity Whoopi Goldberg outed Couric as a fellow pro-abortion protester, blurting that the two had marched together. The then-NBC host was interviewing future View host Whoopi Goldberg about her new memoir. Goldberg outed Couric as a fellow pro-abortion protester, blurting that the two had marched together.
KATIE COURIC: So you write about choice meaning what?
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Well because, you know, when you get out there and you march, because we’ve marched together.
COURIC: [Feigning ignorance]: Noooo. I’m not allowed to do that. [She giggles]
GOLDBERG: [Embarrassed that she just outed Couric] Oh, no that’s right. We have not marched together. It was somebody that looked like you.
[Couric is staring at Goldberg who is laughing ]
Embarrassed at having just outed her fellow left-wing activist, Goldberg mumbled, “Uh, I forget where I am sometimes.”
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that Couric admitted in her 2021 salacious memoir that she “wanted to protect” the liberal [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg from a perceived gaffe. In 2016, the judge said this to her about kneeling athletes: “[They are] showing contempt for a government that made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life.” That part never aired. Couric cut it to protect Ginsburg, saying in the book she was “a big RBG fan.”
For more examples from our FLASHBACK series, which we call the NewsBusters Time Machine, go here.
A transcript of the 1997 exchange is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Today
09/29/1997
8:20 AM ET
KATIE COURIC: Let’s talk about the chapter you write called, ‘Choice,’ it’s a very, very personal chapter about getting a call from your 14 year old daughter telling you, “Hey mom, Guess what?”
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: “I’m pregnant.” Yes. Shock, but relief that she told me.
COURIC: Then she gave you a double whammy and said, “Mom.”
GOLDBERG: “I’m gonna keep this baby.”
COURIC: So you write about choice meaning what?
GOLDBERG: Well because, you know, when you get out there and you march, because we’ve marched together.
COURIC: [Feigning ignorance]: Noooo. I’m not allowed to do that. [She giggles]
GOLDBERG: [Embarrassed that she just outed Couric] Oh, no that’s right. We have not marched together. It was somebody that looked like you.
[At this point Couric is staring at Goldberg who is laughing ]
GOLDBERG: Uh, I forget where I am sometimes.
[Couric tries to get off the subject as soon as she can, prompting
COURIC: You were talking about, want me to remind you? About the pro-choice movement and what pro-choice means to you?