No, this is not an important story, though the coverage allotted by a local paper is fair enough, given the subject’s visibility. But one wonders about the wisdom of CBS’s strategy in setting up a series of eight artificial big-city occasions for Couric to cast her “Eye on America,” as if her years on NBC’s “Today” had left her clueless in this regard, and then to restrict access in a fashion which (as noted by one observer on the ground) recalls this Administration’s phony “town meetings,” where never is heard a discouraging word. With the press barred (no doubt to stop competitors from stealing fresh story ideas), these two reporters are not inclined to take the event at the promoters’ face value: the byplay over an invited blogger’s confiscated pen, the blandness of Couric’s responses to questions, the sharply chosen details (such as the introductory remarks comparing her to Murrow and Cronkite) wind up providing the reader with a mildly satiric treat. (But they are not unfair: even Couric seems baffled by the overwrought tribute, and they note that “At each stop, Couric made appearances for charities, including Ronald McDonald House here,” where the media’s presence was tolerated.) One is left with food for thought: what does such a white-bread charade signify about the seriousness of network news toward its journalistic responsibilities?