I think that there was a lot of embarrassment and shame. I think he knows that he behaved in a way that raises a lot of questions. But I really don’t think he concocted this as a way to enhance his profile or make him look like a sympathetic, almost mythic character.

People like Oprah -- true media phenomena -- tend to make themselves in that mold by coming out of nowhere. Couric, on the other hand, already has a long-established image, one that arguably has taken some hits over five years struggling at CBS. That she got the show demonstrates that you can still cut a great deal by selling a network a known quantity, but my gut tells me that any "next Oprah" is more likely to be an unknown quantity.

* Read everything, including academic papers, which Silver says many journalists miss. Some 
academics 
don't 
know
 how
 to
 write,
 but 
a 
few
 of 
them 
do,
 and 
there's
 a 
lot 
of 
wisdom 
there
 once 
you 
get
 used
 to 
parsing
 through 
the language.
"

* Learn 
how
 to 
be
 entrepreneurial. It's
 important 
to
 develop 
a 
sense
 of
 yourself
 as 
a
 brand
‐‐
don't 
let
 yourself
 become
 defined
 too 
narrowly
 because 
that
 will 
limit
 your
 opportunities 
as
 your 
career
 evolves.
"

* Learn how to make an argument. "
The 
reader
 is
 going
 to
 be 
asking
 you
 to
 develop a hypothesis, weigh the evid
ence, and come to some conclusion about it -- it's really very much analogous to the scientific method. Good journalism has always done this -- but now it needs to be done more explicitly."

* Learn how to work with data and statistics. "Statistics, to anyone who knows anything about them, aren't factoids -- 4 out of 5 dentists agree that Colgate is the best toothpaste, Uganda is the 118th most populous country -- but instead quanta of information that can be pieced together, just like all the other information that you collect as a journalist, to help you write stories and inform others about the world.

> Couric tells Boston U. grads: “Social networking is no substitute for being social"

In the deal under consideration, Ms. Couric would own her syndicated show, and Disney would pay upwards of $20 million as an advance, people familiar with the talks said, with the overall amount determined by the show's performance. As part of the deal, ABC could clear an hour of time between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. in the afternoon on its own stations, one of the people said.

One wildcard is CBS, which had been a strong contender to land Ms. Couric's daytime show, while keeping her involved in some capacity at CBS News. CBS yanked its offer to Ms. Couric in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter, but the network retains the right to match outside offers until Ms. Couric's existing CBS contract runs out around the beginning of June. So far, it has not waived that right, people familiar with the matter said.

Sources say CBS News insiders initially accepted the idea of having Couric keep a role in the division, but have grown weary with the drawn-out negotiation process. "They are ready to wish her well," says one person close to the talks.

> Barbara Walters said to be "really worked up" over possibility of Couric daytime show

Howard Kurtz writes at Newsweek.com:

Having observed her over the years, one senses that Couric feels liberated in leaving a job that utilized only part of her emotional palette. She’s a bit bruised by the experience, but ready to bandage her wounds and try on a brighter wardrobe.