This week's issue of The New York Observer has a pretty lengthy article about Katie Couric, discussing not only the multiple parties celebrating her fiftieth birthday, but talking about the tough sledding her first few months at the helm of the CBS Evening News has been. Rebecca Dana does a good job of showing all the issues that have surrounded her tenure at the anchor desk, speaking to CBS News producers, executives, and people on her old NBC staff who made the move with her.

Turns out that, not only are people at CBS uncomfortable with Katie's more conversational anchor style and her favoritism towards lengthy interviews and lighter fare, the viewers aren't taking to it either. "The most stunning thing about this experience has been to discover how resistant people are to change," executive Paul Friedman told Dana.

Access Hollywood has a takes a second off from its Suri Cruise watch to present a serious story on how news anchors and reporters deal with being in war zones. They speak to NBC's Martin Fletcher about almost being killed by a rocket in Haifa as he was working a story about Hezbollah's bombing of the Israeli city a few days ago.

The article goes on to mention Bob Woodruff's injury in Iraq, and the fact that both Brian Williams and Charles Gibson are overseas right now. But then they pose the big question: Will Katie Couric, when she takes over at CBS this fall, travel to the war zone? Her answer is quite understandable: "I think the situation there is so dangerous, and as a single parent with two children, that's something I won't be doing," she told Access. I wonder why more reporters don't think that way.

[via Mediabistro]