Inside the Kathie Lee Gifford / 'Today Show' Reign of Terror
Though Today's addition of Kathie Lee Gifford to its fourth hour has been controversial, at least one good thing has come of it: the manic host has made the incoherent Ann Curry look like Cronkite. So constant is the ex-Reeger's chatting that even Today regular Sam the Cooking Guy erupted at Gifford, prompting him to burst out with "Can I talk?" after one babbled interruption too many. Now the New York Times has picked up on the Kathie Lee backlash, quoting enough bitter, female viewers to power a Television Without Pity message board:
“Every time that fourth hour comes on, I can literally feel my body temperature rising,” said Gina Maria Croci, a 47-year-old Las Vegas schoolteacher and “Today” show viewer, in a telephone interview. “The way she always talks over poor Hoda and the guests and is just constantly talking about herself.” “I’m getting angry just talking about it,” she said.
...So far, Mrs. Gifford is the only TV personality who has compelled Leah Ackerman, a 33-year-old police officer trainee in Alameda, Calif., to set up a user group on Facebook.com. Although her group, “I Hate Kathy Lee Gifford,” has attracted only four members (“I just did it for me and my friends,” she said by phone), it is one of at least three groups on the site dedicated to denouncing Mrs. Gifford.
Leave it to the New York Times to interview the woman behind the least interesting Kathy Lee [sic] group on Facebook — why no quotes from Elena or Alaina from "Pagans Against Today Show Kathy Lee Gifford's Pagan Slander"? What does a Pagan have to do around here to get a Gray Lady interview and an apologetic My Name is Earl box set sent from NBC?
[Photo credit: AP]
