Broadcasting veteran Katie Couric said Friday that many Americans consume news to receive “affirmation not information” because the country is so divided politically.
“I always say mass media is now an oxymoron, because there is no mass media, really. Everyone’s getting their information and their content from different places, often those that affirm their preexisting beliefs,” Couric told Dr. Mark Pochapin on SiriusXM Doctor Radio when asked why she started her own media company.
“A friend of mine said we go to get affirmation not information now,” Couric added. “It’s become very polarized as a country, and I wanted to take advantage of all these different platforms.”
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Couric -- who has held high-profile media gigs at NBC, CBS, ABC and Yahoo, also discussed the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s almost impossible to assess the long-term impact of this pandemic,” she said, noting that after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 Americans responded by declaring they wouldn’t allow the terrorists to win.
“This enemy, in many ways, [is] more invisible than terrorist cells,” she said. “The cells that create this disease ... our response has been that we have to close everything.”
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Last month, Couric alarmed fans when she admitted that she may have been exposed to the coronavirus.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had announced that Rick Cotton, head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, tested positive for COVID-19 when Couric posted on Twitter that she had recently seen Cotton.
Couric’s followers quickly told her to “self-quarantine” and “be careful and get tested.” She later told Fox News that they said only hello to each other “briefly” on the street and there was "no physical contact."