America is still known as "The Land of Opportunity."

And this made me wonder why CBS' anchor lady, Katie Couric, has not, reportedly, offered to share some of her income to save dozens of her fellow CBS employees – whom the New York Observer and the New York Post, among others, reported are being laid off.

Ms. Couric, reports Drudge, is, instead of any such helping of her fellow employees, facing "a dramatic pay cut at the network."

But the New York Times quoted CBS News President Sean McManus denying any such Couric pay cut.

The Drudge Report noted that she is "the highest-paid TV news personality in history" and "commands over $14 million a year, plus bumps for non-evening news appearances."

Think about that.

The sum $14 million equals, for a 40-hour week, $6,731 an hour; $112 a minute; and $1.86 per second!

Drudge quoted what he identified only as "a veteran producer," who declared:

"She makes enough to pay 200 reporters $75,000 a year! We report with great enthusiasm how much bankers are making, how it is out of step with reality during a recession. Well, look at Katie!"

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Drudge also reports that Couric's one-time predecessor, Dan Rather, called on President Obama to form a White House commission to help save the press. Tears were in Rather's eyes as he discussed the dwindling number of war correspondents.

Which raises the question: Will Katie Couric ask that all of her salary, except the same amount as Obama's salary, be shared with her fellow CBS employees, to save them from being laid off?

At the White House daily news briefing on Thursday, Feb. 4, I asked press secretary Robert Gibbs:

Q: In his commendable concern for the unemployed, the president would be gratified if Katie Couric would share 14.5 of her widely reported $15 million salary to rescue those hundreds of CBS employees laid off, so she would still have an income similar to the president's, wouldn't he?

MR. GIBBS: Chip – (Laughter.)

MR. GIBBS: Chip is – no. Look, Lester, Lester, I'm – Lester, I'm happy to answer questions on policies that the government –

Q: This is unemployment. This is unemployment.

MR. GIBBS: Lester, I don't think it's appropriate for me to get into the compensation of a network any more than it is for me to get into your compensation.

The loud laughter came because Gibbs responded to my question by using the word "Chip" – the nickname of the CBS correspondent, who nearly fell out of his seat. Did Gibbs do this mistakenly? Possibly. But I suspect it was more of the Gibbs needle!

Earlier in the briefing, Gibbs mentioned:

"This recession has cost us 7 million jobs."

But when it came to all those jobs being lost at CBS, there was at the Obama White House no real comment of concern, but only an unwillingness to comment.