Calling Katie Couric "perky." Discuss.

That's the lead in to a Los Angeles Times piece today that attempts to look at sexism in the media. You know, or not. Instead we've got writer Robin Abcarian pulling a William Safire and examing where this word "perky" came from and how the NBC-to-CBS transplant got caught in the middle of it.

Earlier this week, a search of the word "perky" in the massive database Factiva turned up more than 64,000 hits. At the top of the list was this story from the April 17 edition of Newsweek: "The Katie Factor: After 15 years, the perky star of morning television finally gets to sleep in. Will she change evening news or will it change her?" If there was a dash of irony in the body of the story, where Newsweek referred to the 49-year-old star as "our Katie," it was hard to detect.

Just try to find a published account of Couric's switch from host of "Today" to the "CBS Evening News" that does not employ, straight-faced or not, the word "perky" to describe her. Most of the coverage has been laudatory, but with its slightly negative edge, the word always seems to slice at Couric's authority. …

A spokesman for Couric, who declined to be interviewed for this story, said he thinks the word has attached to her like a limpet because of simple journalistic laziness. "It's an incomplete depiction of a versatile multidimensional success story," said Matthew Hiltzik.

Uhm, "a versatile multidimensional success story?" We'll trade vague for lazy, any day. What's not lazy, however, is this handy list of Factiva mentions of "perky" personalities.

Katie Couric: 857
Kathy Lee Gifford: 433
Paris Hilton: 181
Kelli Ripa: 156
Mary Hart: 137
Margaret Thatcher: 132
Dick Cheney: 103
Janet Reno: 59
Tony Soprano: 44
Condoleezza Rice: 39
Quasimodo: 22

With Paris Hilton and Tony Soprano, we're sure all those mentions where devoted to their breasts personalities. And Condi? We're stumped, 'less all those jounos were referring to her piano skills. And as for Katie Couric, at least they were talking about her knees. Which are sexy. Damn sexy.

Face Up to the Perky [Robin Abcarian, LAT]