Ashleigh Banfield is using her clout to help counsel the next generation of broadcast journalists after it was revealed that Katie Couric bullied her early in her career.
DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal that Banfield is launching a new mentorship program next month with top broadcast journalists including Mika Brzezinski, Savannah Guthrie, Lisa Ling and Bob Costas.
Banfield's program, Rising Tide: The Value in Mentoring Others, which will be organized through Nexstar Media Inc.'s news and entertainment network NewsNation, comes after Katie Couric likened mentorship to career 'self-sabotage' in her new memoir.
Industry leader: Ashleigh Banfield is launching a new mentorship program with broadcasting giants after Katie Couric admitted that mentoring Ashleigh would have been 'self-sabotage', DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal
Rising Tide will provide guidance to illuminate more clearly the professional path for broadcasting newbies and veterans alike through the advice, wisdom and mistakes of industry leaders.
The NewsNation program will be a free monthly symposium and podcast featuring the best of the best in broadcast journalism from politics to sports to entertainment.
Ashleigh, who hosts Banfield on the network, will work as both a VIP mentor and moderator, interviewing a pantheon of key industry players.
'I recently addressed the importance of mentoring younger colleagues on my program and the response was overwhelming,' Banfield said in a press release. 'I saw a need that wasn't being met as robustly as it should be, and I've decided to step in and do something about it. Broadcast journalism is incredibly competitive, and we need to help those who are just starting out in the field as much as possible.'
Helping hand: Banfield's program, Rising Tide: The Value in Mentoring Others , which will be organized through Nexstar Media Inc.'s news and entertainment network NewsNation, comes after Katie Couric likened mentorship to career 'self-sabotage' in her new memoir
Journalism: The NewsNation program will be a free monthly symposium and podcast featuring the best of the best in broadcast journalism from politics to sports to entertainment (Mentors Mika Brzezinski, Savannah Guthrie pictured)
DailyMailTV host Thomas Roberts and DailyMail.com columnist Meghan McCain will join the likes of Mika Brzezinski, Savannah Guthrie, Bob Costas, Lisa Ling and several others as part of Rising Tide.
Ashleigh currently hosts her eponymous NewsNation show, Banfield, which airs at 10pm ET on the network.
Her new mentorship program comes after Katie Couric admitted in her new memoir, Going There, that she gave Banfield the cold shoulder when they first worked together because helping her would have been 'self sabotage'.
Couric writes that she was aware that 'someone younger and cuter was always around the corner' and specifically singles out Banfield as an example.
Best of the best: DailyMailTV host Thomas Roberts and DailyMail.com columnist Meghan McCain (pictured) will join the mentors as part of Rising Tide
'For a minute there, Ashleigh Banfield was the next big thing; I'd heard her father was telling anyone who'd listen that she was going to replace me. In that environment, mentorship sometimes felt like self-sabotage,' she says in the book.
Katie later denied icing out Banfield in an interview with People, but Ashleigh recalled the situation quite differently, exclusively telling DailyMail.com that Couric's behavior made work so 'challenging' that the 'memories and timetables become crystalized.'
Additionally, an NBC source who worked with both women at the time bolstered Banfield's side, saying that Couric 'blatantly lied to People Magazine.'
When contacted by DailyMail.com to respond to Couric's comments, Banfield exclusively said: 'I'd only been at the network for about seven months before being assigned to cover the Olympics in Sydney, Australia. I don't think many people knew my name, my profile wouldn't rise for another year until after the tragic events of 9/11 and the war on terror in Afghanistan.'
Going high: The new mentorship program comes after Katie Couric admitted in her new memoir, Going There, that she gave Banfield the cold shoulder when they first worked together because helping her would have been 'self sabotage'
'Clearly, we have different recollections of what transpired. All I can say is that when you're on the receiving end of this kind of behavior, your memories and timetables become crystalized, since it was a very challenging time for me, personally and professionally,' she added.
In People, when Couric was asked if she iced out Banfield, she changed her tune saying: 'Absolutely not. I think if someone was openly saying they were going to replace me, I don't think I helped them. I never iced her out. I never criticized her. It just didn't bring out my generous side.'
'The culture at the time and the scarcity of high-profile jobs for women — not to mention the fact that I watched Jane [Pauley] get pushed out [as Today co-anchor in 1989] because of the whims of the men in charge — sometimes made me feel protective of my position,' the 64-year-old added.
However, a well-placed NBC source who worked closely with Katie and Ashleigh back in the early aughts refutes Couric's revisionist history and tells DailyMail.com that the former Today anchor owes Banfield a big apology.
'Katie has blatantly lied to People Magazine,' the source tells DailyMail.com. 'I was in Australia when she humiliated Ashleigh and this was in September of 2000 and Ashleigh had only just recently joined MSNBC and NBC News.'
DailyMail.com previously reported that while covering the Olympics, Couric humiliated Banfield and then mocked her after she was scolded for asking an 'off-limits' question during an interview with Olympic Gold medalist Michael Johnson.
'Katie is rewriting history. To say she didn't criticize her is outrageous. I was there, I saw her do it both to her face and behind her back. She was awful,' the source said. 'Many of us remember Katie's appalling treatment of Ashleigh and Katie knows in her heart what she did to her.
