Couric, podcaster react to Zuckerberg 'Meta' rebrand: Distracting from a 'dumpster fire'

WASHINGTON, D.C.–Veteran journalist Katie Couric, who has been in the spotlight over eye-popping revalations from the release of her new book "Going There," and "Sway" podcast host Kara Swisher spent some time ripping Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his company's curiously timed rebrand while on stage at Couric's book tour.

Zuckerberg surprised Facebook users at last week's Connect 2021 event when he announced the social media platform would be renamed as "Meta" as it prepared to enter the metaverse, a virtual reality space where users can interact with each other in a computer-generated environment. 

"From now on, we're going to be metaverse first, not Facebook first," he said. "That means that over time, you won't need to use Facebook to use our other services as our new brand starts showing up in our products. I hope that people come to know the Meta brand and the future that we stand for."

The news came just a few days after former company product manager Frances Haugen leaked documents exposing how the company allegedly put profits ahead of user well-being. The material also revealed the extent to which Instagram had an adverse effect on the mental health of teenage girls. 

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"He’s got a dumpster fire, so he’s saying come look at this instead," Swisher, who also write columns for the New York Times, said of Zuckerberg Saturday night. "They don’t know what to do, so they’re rebranding." 

She mocked the rebrand itself, saying the "meta" concept that you can live in both the physical and digital worlds, is an "old idea." 

"I call it Feta," she quipped. "It’s better tasting."

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Swisher also zinged Zuckerberg for how he rolled out his announcement, saying he showed "a really creepy video" that is unlikely to attract younger users. 

"He’s losing young people," Swisher said. "They won’t go near Facebook. He’s got to stay relevant."

Swisher also sounded off on how Facebook has appeared to allow Holocaust deniers on the site and that he's "continued to run himself into the wall."

Couric wondered if the documents were the last straw and if it was time to break up Big Tech. While not entirely hopeful, Swisher did note that she recently had Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., on her podcast and he shared that he and a Democratic colleague, Rep. David N. Cicilline, D-R.I., are trying to bring forward a bill to try and restore competition to the digital marketplace.

"We’ll see if it gets anywhere," Swisher said of the legislation.

Couric recalled her entertaining and often contentious exchanges with another Facebook official, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, during a sitdown in 2019. Both Couric and Swisher said congratulations were in order for how she conducted the interview, suggesting Sandberg was not prepared for what they described as hardball questions. In their sit down, Couric asked Sandberg what the company planned to do protect users.

"I haven’t talked to her since," Couric said.

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Couric book tour has been accompanied by several controversies. Her memoir has revealed that she distrusted some of her fellow female journalists and that she selectively edited her interview with the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2016 to shield the liberal justice from backlash she would have likely received from speaking negatively of national anthem kneelers. At her tour Saturday, Couric said she "bristled" now at the thought of her edit and admitted she "let her admiration get in the way of her morals."