Katie Couric’s Denzel Tale Backfired BIGTIME

Katie Couric tried to play frightened fragile white woman against Denzel Washington, but it didn’t play out very well. In fact, it led to her being dragged on both liberal and conservative platforms. Recalling a 2004 interview with the actor in which he defended himself against being referred to as “Hollywood folk”, she told Danny Pellegrino on his “Everything Iconic” podcast that she felt “shaken” and uncomfortable afterward. However, not too many people responded positively to her retelling of the exchange. Most see it as a very unwarranted overreaction. Even on the most liberal platforms, it seems that the world is growing tired of powerful, privileged women like Couric playing the victim at will.

Katie Couric is a proud feminist. And her latest stunt manifested a lot of what is very toxic and problematic with modern “white” feminism. On one hand, feminists like Couric celebrate being powerful, confident and able to stand neck and neck with any man. At the drop of hat, however, some grandstanding feminists like Couric sometimes drop all of that, weaponize their gender, and attempt to play the vulnerable damsel in distress whenever it suits them. Regardless, it seems no one was convinced or impressed with Couric’s attempt to make Washington look like the angry black boogieman who scared her. He merely stood his ground and assertively stood up to her sometimes passive-aggressive and obnoxious style of interviewing. Reviving the encounter, she attempted to make him news for her relevancy, but it didn’t work out as she may have planned.

Couric joins many white female feminists strategically using famous black males for headlines with American media more than happy to assist in making them the antagonists. It’s a part of an old American media playbook. For example, Taylor Swift kept playing victim in reviving her beef with Kanye West when it was already ancient history. Swift got caught lying when she claimed she didn’t know about the song West was making when she did. After laying low on the issue for a long while, liberal feminist-leaning media outlets helped her revive and repaint the story and switch it around again as she released new music.  Regardless, the matter was already a dead issue. Soon after dragging West back into the headlines with old beef, she released her new track, “If I Was a Man”. Lena Dunham once unsuccessfully tried to paint Odell Beckham, Jr. as a misogynist and the confusing attempt tanked. It was very clear that Beckham was the one in danger of Dunham’s wild imagination. She decided to tell the world what Beckham was probably thinking, devaluing her as a woman while sitting next to her, making all of it up of course. Michelle Beadle used domestic violence comments taken out of context and gender to throw colleague Stephen A. Smith under the bus forcing him to publicly apologize. Even if the opinion was unpopular, Beadle is of the new liberal mindset that we are simply not allowed to have certain views or opinions. However, it wouldn’t be long before she exposed herself as well. Beadle went on tirades against Ray Rice and Floyd Mayweather suggesting we boycott Mayweather for domestic violence.  Pocket watching and knowing he had WWE engagements on deck, Beadle went as far as suggesting the WWE break all ties with him.  However, the slippery Beadle slid out the back door when she was called out for her blatant hypocrisy. She once proudly cited “Stone Cold” Steve Austin as the very reason she became a fan of WWE and often wore his T-shirts showing support many times. However, Steve Austin has long history of domestic abuse that Beadle must’ve forgotten about or completely ignored.  And this is America. At any rate, Couric’s attempt at demonizing Washington as an interview that left her shaken wreaks of this same devious hypocrisy.

Couric’s is no “shaken” victim and certainly shouldn’t have been from her exchange with Denzel Washington. In contrast, women like Couric are highly intelligent, strong, calculated, and sometimes conniving. And throughout history, women like Couric have been extremely dangerous. Her interview with Washington was simply 2 well known, successful people having a conversation. Her decision to spin the story to make Washington seem threatening was in very poor taste and reminiscent of a long dark history in which many men were lynched and killed.

At any rate, Couric is supposed to be a professional able to roll with all types of conversations and reactions. And she has for the most part. In fact, she, an outspoken feminist, was even pinched on the buttocks by cohost Matt Lauer for over a decade, and she was not shaken or bothered by that.  Her singling Denzel Washington out for making her uncomfortable put a very bad taste in people’s mouths. What makes matters much worse is that Washington gave a generous donation to Couric’s Colon Cancer charity after the interview. So she could’ve taken that as an extremely nice act of contrition and left the matter alone as water under the bridge. Instead, Couric still served this narrative up to an institutionally racist American media with covert agendas of demonizing prominent black males. In fact, before it started to backfire outlets initially did try to run with it. It just didn’t catch on in Couric’s favor.

Denzel Washington never went after Couric with any malicious intent. They were having a conversation and he checked her appropriately. However, for her own self-serving reasons, Katie Couric came after Denzel Washington—and 16 years later. Completely unpacked and underneath it all, there is a covert attack on masculinity, and especially, black masculinity. And Washington being a strong man in his own power putting her in her place is something that Couric and her ilk would love to criminalize. Just not today.