What does it say about incoming Today show co-anchor Ann Curry that even her friends in the liberal media make fun of her? Time's managing editor Richard Stengel, did just that, in his Saturday speech to students at Wheaton College when he poked fun at Curry's confused commencement speech at that same college last year.
Fans of Newsbusters will recall the geographically challenged Curry got the Wheaton College in Massachusetts mixed up with the college of the same name in Illinois. The mistake actually wasn't that surprising given the fact that Curry once needed her colleague Chuck Todd's help to find the state of Illinois on a map.
As TVNewser's Chris Ariens reported, in his May 21 article, Stengel, a self-described "friend" of the longtime Today snow newsreader, couldn't resist ridiculing Curry:
STENGEL: Before I give a really important speech like this, I like to consult with colleagues of mine in the media. So I Googled Ann Curry and then I called her. And I said I'm going to talk about the media today and I wanted to talk to her about it. And we're talking for a bit and she was weirdly uninformed about what I wanted to talk about, and I told her so. And she said, "Well, I'm Ann Curry from Springfield, Illinois. I'm an insurance claims adjuster." Well, imagine my surprise. The wrong Ann Curry.
TVNewser's Chris Ariens relayed: "That got a laugh from the crowd. Stengel is referring to Curry's speech last year in which she listed some of the prestigious alumni of Wheaton, except she got the wrong Wheaton — the one in Illinois. But Stengel had a point in his humorous anecdote:
STENGEL: So you know what I'm talking about. By the way, she gave a great speech last year. And she is a friend of mine. But what I really want to talk about is what happened there because it's the difference between information and knowledge. And that is what you've really spent the last four years trying to figure out, which is the difference between information and knowledge. There has never been a time in human history where information was more easily accessible than it is now. And you saw what happened last year, because all information is not created equal.
