Katie Couric Will Make First Trip to Iraq

Katie Couric Will Make First Trip to Iraq

By BILL CARTER
nytimes.com
August 29, 2007

The CBS News anchor Katie Couric is to travel to Iraq and Syria to report on the war, the executive producer of the broadcast, Rick Kaplan, said yesterday.

It will be Ms. Couric’s first trip to the war zone. Mr. Kaplan said Ms. Couric had decided the trip was important as a way to lay out the issues before the report that the American commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, is due to make to Congress next month.

“I don’t travel an anchor lightly,” said Mr. Kaplan, who will accompany Ms. Couric. “Only when it’s important. I think it is, and Katie thinks it is.”

Mr. Kaplan said Ms. Couric would compile 8 to 10 reports, backed by 4 or 5 reports from the lead CBS correspondent in Iraq, Lara Logan. Ms. Couric will anchor the evening newscast from Baghdad and Damascus, Syria, starting Tuesday night.

CBS plans to interview General Petraeus and other American military and Iraqi officials. Mr. Kaplan said CBS was seeking interviews with seven soldiers who wrote an Op-Ed article in The New York Times that cited their dissenting views about how the war was faring.

Ms. Couric had previously expressed caution about traveling to Iraq because of the risks for journalists. One network anchor, Bob Woodruff of ABC, was seriously injured during a trip to the war zone. A CBS correspondent, Kimberly Dozier, was seriously injured, and this week CBS reported that its chief translator had been abducted and killed.

Mr. Kaplan said that CBS had enlisted as much security as possible. He said he was aware of the risks, especially to Ms. Couric.

“It’s a profound decision for anyone to undertake and it especially becomes significant for a single mother of two young daughters,” Mr. Kaplan said. “Those aspects were weighed very carefully. This is Katie’s decision.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/arts/29kati.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin