Katie Whacks A Shuttlecock While Saddam Gesticulates

Katie Couric played games while the other shows showed the real news:

NEW YORK - NBC's "Today" show was embarrassed Thursday when it aired Katie Couric batting a badminton shuttlecock while its rivals showed the first footage of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s court appearance.

"We made a mistake," said executive producer Tom Touchet. "In retrospect, I'd do it completely differently."

The first footage of Iraq (news - web sites)'s former leader since his capture by the U.S. seven months ago came into newsrooms shortly after 8:30 a.m. EDT. ABC's "Good Morning America," CBS' "The Early Show" and the cable news networks all showed the pictures immediately.

NBC stuck with feature stories on a Robert Redford movie and badminton, showing Saddam at the 9 a.m. newscast that opens the third hour of "Today."

Touchet gave no further explanation of the error. "Today" changed the West Coast feed of the broadcast to lead with the Saddam pictures.

Meanwhile, ABC scored a coup when anchor Peter Jennings attended Saddam's court hearing. CBS' Dan Rather reported on the appearance from an outside location.

NBC's Tom Brokaw, who had traveled to Iraq for this week's handover of sovereignty, left Iraq for the United States before the hearing because he was told only a pool reporter would be allowed in, NBC News spokeswoman Allison Gollust said.
If I got laid-off tomorrow, I'd work as the dude who cleans out porta-potties so I didn't have to stay home and watch Katie Couric. No disrespect to the porta-pottie dude BTW.