Katie Couric's 'condescending, elitist' remarks calling to 'deprogram' GOP retires journo label, critics say

Katie Couric has spent decades on television across the three broadcast networks, but the highly-partisan remarks she made on "Real Time with Bill Maher" last week could tarnish her image as an iconic, non-partisan newswoman. 

"Katie is 'retired' from any 'objective' news duties," NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News. "She has been a partisan for a long time."

Couric, best known as the longtime co-anchor of NBC's "Today" and for a five-year run in the anchor chair on the "CBS Evening News," raised eyebrows when she blasted the GOP's support for President Trump amid his second impeachment battle. 

"It is so shocking. ... Not only are they not conceding, Bill, but their thoughts -- that there might have been some collusion among members of Congress, some are refusing to go through magnetometers ... to check for weapons, they're not wearing masks during this siege," Couric began.

"I mean, it's really bizarre, isn't it, when you think about how AWOL so many of these members of Congress have gotten. But I also think some of them are believing the garbage that they are being fed 24/7 on the internet, by their constituents, and they bought into this big lie. And the question is how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump." 

Cornell Law School professor and media critic William A. Jacobson told Fox News that "threats of 'deprogramming' Trump supporters have become "common among liberal journalists."

"Katie Couric making such offensive comments comes as no surprise, she is part of a media complex that deliberately stifled the flow of information negative to Biden in order to interfere in the election," Jacobson said.