Katie Couric Admits She Was ‘Upset’ Dan Rather Said She Was ‘Dumbing Down and Tarting Up the News’

Katie Couric looks back on her experience at CBS News more than a decade after she left the network.

During the SXSW conference keynote panel titled “Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off Screen” on Friday in Austin, Texas, the 67-year-old journalist reflected on becoming the first woman to lead a film solo CBS Evening News in 2006.

“It was really challenging. After my first night, the next day, a media critic said, ‘Why is she wearing white after Labor Day?'” she recalled.

From left: Meghan Markle, Katie Couric and Brooke Shields speak on stage during the Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen panel during the SXSW 2024 conference and festival at the Austin Convention Center on March 8, 2024 in Austin, Texas.

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Couric added that the former CBS Evening News host Dan Rather reportedly offered no support.

“Dan Rather said I was dumbing down and spoiling the news,” she said. “I was so upset for a while after they hit me in the press.”

Rather had no comment when reached by PEOPLE.

Despite the challenges, Couric shared that she is proud of her contributions to the newsroom during the panel, which also included Meghan Markle, Brooke Shields and Nancy Wang Yuen, an author, sociologist, pop culture expert and diversity, equity and inclusion consultant for the People’s Republic.

“In retrospect, I’m really glad I took the job,” she said. “I think I brought my sensibility as a woman to the news.”

“I feel like I really contributed to what was on the show and prevented sexism in the newsroom,” she continued. “I was a bit of a watchdog to make sure women’s stories were told.”

Katie Couric at the 2023 American Ballet Theater Fall Gala at David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center on October 24, 2023 in New York City.

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In 2021, Couric told PEOPLE that she sees the move from NBC to CBS as “a new challenge.”

“I kind of felt like I owed it to a woman, which is probably ridiculous in retrospect, but I thought this was a really important moment, a social moment,” she explained while promoting her memoir, Going there. “It’s kind of a statement. And so I thought, am I ever going to have this opportunity again? And 15 years is a long time, you know, in one job.”

Katie Couric attends “Morning with Mary” at the Fox Business Network studios on March 20, 2019 in New York City. Roy Rochlin/Getty Katie Couric talks breast cancer awareness ‘commitment’, says friends call her ‘queen of the screen’

I’ve never shied away from a challenge and that’s why I did it, she continued. “It seemed like I might regret not doing it, and I like to keep moving and learning and growing.”

But the veteran journalist was more hesitant to say that she would do it again.

“If I knew then what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have,” Couric said at the time. “It was an amazing growth experience for me and I’m glad I did it. I think I did a really good job there.”

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Couric also told PEOPLE in the 2021 cover story that she’s “really glad” she left for CBS and has no regrets about opening a new chapter in her career.

“Some of my friends asked me, ‘Do you regret it?’ I think I would regret staying Today’s show 20 or 25 years,” she said. “I needed a new challenge. I wanted to grow.”

“I wanted to work different muscles. So I’m glad I did it. It didn’t go the way I hoped,” she added, noting that the performance was not without problems. “What do they say? What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?”

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Source: HIS Education