The latest Gallup Poll says everyone hates Katie Couric. Well, not exactly. Everyone hates Couric a little more than they hate Brian Williams and Charlie Gibson.

Not sure what to make of this survey. The likeability of anchors is considered so important to the success of a newscast, that it's obviously bad news for Couric if every demographic of people finds competing anchors more likable.

Still, when it comes down to it, I'm kind of frustrated by the poll.

Part of me suspects powerful women always have higher negative ratings. The culture just doesn't accept them as easily, as naturally. So I want to tell CBS to shirk the polls and rebel against our prejudice.

On the other hand, news is a business. If people don't like Couric as much other anchors, then it's easy to replace her with someone they'll like more.

That same part of me from earlier hates any suggestion that anchors are chosen based on a popularity contest. How fickle and feckless a newscast would become if it depended on being the nice guy. People in this survey actually complained that Gibson gave too much negative news. If CBS is going to replace Couric for high negatives, then the next step is for ABC to report less bad news. Focus more on rainbows and sunshine, Charlie, they'd say.

What this all comes back to is something I've said many times now. CBS must stop boxing Couric into what they define as the evening news and instead create something that truly takes advantage of having the most well known anchor in all of television news.

The survey reports that way more people know Couric than Gibson or Williams. What happened to that old axiom? All news is good news. Its equivalent would be all opinions are good ones.

Katie Couric's strength isn't being well liked, it's being well know. She generates interest, and interest generates viewers. Too bad CBS is afraid of controversy.

CBS killed "Free Speech" when it touched a nerve. They complained about the Michael J. Fox interview because it was controversial. People couldn't stop talking about the John and Elizabeth Edwards interview. That's doing things right, and differently, not wrong.