‘Strangely, Matthews suggested that the [Palin-quizzing] moment was great for Couric’s career…’

And indeed, she won a “journalistic courage” award for it, but Matt Schneider makes an original point:

yet given the fact that the CBS Evening News never rose out of third place in the ratings, there’s a legitimate argument to be made that the former CBS anchor’s high-profile handling of Palin may have been a primary reason why Couric couldn’t draw any new viewers after that.