New York Daily News

NEW YORK – Morning-news divas apparently have feelings, too.

Months after several scathing news stories portrayed Katie Couric as a tyrannical prima donna whose mere presence in the NBC hallways sent staffers scurrying for cover, the “Today” show co-anchor has gone on the defensive.

In recent interviews with two magazines, Couric admits that reports of her off-camera bad behavior have gotten under her skin.

“Nobody enjoys being trashed,” says Couric in the latest issue of AARP the Magazine. “But it comes with success, with an increasingly snarky environment in the world today.”

Couric goes on to call the stories “predictable and tiresome” and “full of malarkey.”

“There’s been a lot of completely bogus stuff written about me,” she continues. “That’s been tough for me as a journalist.”

But in the October issue of Ladies’ Home Journal, Couric takes the high road when an interviewer asks about the recent brickbats.

“You can’t please everyone, and you can’t make everyone like you,” says Couric.

“I’ve always tried to stay true to my authentic self. I think sometimes people project things on you, but I’m trying to handle everything that’s happened to me with a certain amount of grace, dignity and good manners. You just can’t necessarily win all the time.”

The media started firing potshots earlier this year when the No. 1-rated “Today” show began slipping in the ratings to the perennial No. 2, ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

While Couric’s affability, all-American looks and perky presence were credited for helping keep “Today” on top for almost a decade, she became an easy target as soon as “Good Morning America” began narrowing the Nielsen gap.

Not only did a New York magazine feature blame Couric for a behind-the-scenes “crisis” at “Today,” a New York Times article contained this now-infamous description of what it’s like to work with Couric:

“America’s girl next door has morphed into the mercurial diva down the hall. At the first sound of her peremptory voice and clickety stiletto heels, people dart behind doors and douse the lights.”

The timing of Couric’s public response to the criticism is certainly curious – her NBC contract is up in May, and Couric, who turns 49 in January, is still undecided about her future. (Couric did not respond to a request for an interview from the New York Daily News.)

But Paul Levinson, professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University, believes Couric’s recent comments are just a matter of getting her feelings off her chest.

“It was probably bothering her,” says Levinson. “She was aggravated about what she feels is not a completely accurate report about her that made her look bad, and it’s still sticking in her craw.”