Katie Couric meets 'regular folks' in Minneapolis

It was a well orchestrated media event that excluded the media, a private invitation-only meeting in the brand new Minneapolis public library designed to connect network news's biggest new deal -- The Katie -- with "regular folks" from Minnesota.

Those "folks" meeting Katie Couric, newly of CBS news, included former City Council President Jackie Cherryhomes, public relations guru Jon Austin, St. Thomas journalism professor Mark Neuzil, and numerous recognizable faces from government and social service agencies.

Couric's "Eye on America" road show passed through Minneapolis on Wednesday in a visit that was part fundraiser, part celebrity peek-a-boo, and part of the "soft sell" campaign by CBS News to introduce Katie Couric to the nation.

Couric, the effervescent, wildly popular former co-host of NBC's Today Show, will become the solo anchor on the CBS Evening News Sept. 5.

Minneapolis, which Couric said she'd never visited before, was the third stop on her "listening tour." This week she has already made appearances in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Dallas. She also will visit Denver, San Diego and San Francisco.

At each stop, Couric made appearances for charities, including Ronald McDonald House here. And she met with citizens in each city to see what viewers want in their news and to gather story ideas, according to pre-event publicity.

Library director Kit Hadley said WCCO rented the Pohlad Hall at the "standard" rate for a meeting outside the library's standard operating hours. But the meeting was hardly standard.

"Not with every staff member trying to figure out what part of their job responsibility would take them to that part of the library and yet preserve their poise," she said, chuckling.

And Hadley? "I was doing the same thing."

Several people who attended the event called it "interesting." Questions were not screened and Couric, who whisked through the Minneapolis Libraryin a crisp beige suit with a posse in tow, stayed for two hours and posed for pictures.

"She said she was there to listen," said Austin. "But it seemed everybody wanted something different and nobody knows what to do with that. Some want more emotion from the news, some less. There was no consensus."

There were, however, some critics of the tightly run event.

"It seems like something the president would pull," said Jane Kirtley, University of Minnesota ethics professor. "At a time when the news media is trying to gain the trust through transparency, to have a meeting closed to the media and the general public is unbelievable."

The "listening" event, which was billed as private and strictly closed to the media, didn't quite turn out that way, however.

Although WCCO spokeswoman Kiki Rosatti flatly stated that no WCCO news staff would be attending, anchor Don Shelby was on hand to introduce Couric, invoking news legends Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite -- comparisons that even had Couric shaking her head.

WCCO news director Jeff Kiernan said Shelby was there in his "official WCCO news" capacity to introduce Couric and would not be discussing the event on the news or on his afternoon radio show.

Pen confiscation

Matt Bartel, owner of the popular MNSpeak blog also was issued an invitation by WCCO, although the station apparently didn't recognize the name Bartel (ubiquitous in Twin Cities publishing circles) or his business, until the event was about to start.

"They pulled me out of the auditorium and told me that they'd become aware of the fact that I had a blog," Bartel said. "They said, 'We don't want you to participate,' " then offered him a choice: surrender his notebook or leave the event.

"I wasn't going to give them my notebook; I had business stuff in there."

A compromise was reached - the 'CCO staffer confiscated Bartel's pen instead.

Not that there was much to take notes on anyway, Bartel said later.

"No one said anything all that remarkable. And even with the interesting things that were said, I can't imagine it would make any difference."

Among other comments, a gay couple who were against gay marriage talked about that issue and a Native American woman talked about how local news portrayed Native Americans.

Bartel said he told Couric and her executive producer, who was also on hand, that he never watched network news, nor did he even have a television.

"I asked them why they were trying to market the news to all these different constituencies," he recalled. "I said 'Since you're the so-called experts, why don't you just pick the stuff you think is important?' "

Couric's producer told him, "Good point, we try to do that," he said.

Bartel never did get his pen back, "although some WCCO guy gave me one that was even better, so that was okay."

Bartel added, "I didn't get anything out of it, which is exactly what the evening news is."

Jon Tevlin • 612-673-1702

Deborah Caulfield Rybak• 612-673-4996