My kids have been Facebook users for a while now, then their mother, and recently I took the plunge. I've enjoyed finding old friends, seeing what they look like now and catching up on the intervening years. I've been similarly intrigued by the marketing potential of social networks.

Now I'm just getting that sinking feeling that I've been screwed again.

I wonder if Katie Couric ever imagined as she dutifully reported public outrage over banker bonuses, that she was sowing the seeds of discontent among her own staff?

Couric, the highest paid TV news personality in history, commands over $14 million a year, plus bumps for non-EVENING NEWS appearances.

But her salary is now in the direct line of fire, network insiders explain, and a populist backlash against Couric's cash is said to be forming inside the newsroom.

"She makes enough to pay 200 news reporters $75,000 a year!" demands a veteran producer. "It's complete insanity."

The angry source continues: "We report with great enthusiasm how much bankers are making, how it is out of step with reality during a recession. We'll look at Katie!"

Katie Couric is a 'trustee'.

In the old prison movies, the trustees were prisoners who were bribed into collaboration with the guards with special privileges. They snitched on their fellow prisoners, exploited their power to deal casual brutality and where hated for it. In most of these films, it never ends well for the trustees.

Couric, like a lot if not most people, never really looked at her role in the news business and whether it was ethical or in her long term interests. They waved a lot of money in front her nose and she gladly did whatever they asked her to do. Now compromised to the extent that she can never go home again, it may just now be dawning on her that she is the sacrificial lamb in this circumstance.

The real evil dudes are the wardens, but I don't expect Couric will get much public sympathy.

Couric of course, won't be taking a pay cut. She's not an at-will employee and a breach of a 14 million dollar contract is well worth any cost of litigation, not to mention the cost of the best lawyers in the nation to draw it up in the first place.

The leverage here is the damage to Couric's image. Couric can voluntarily give up all or part of her compensation without legal consequence. CBS saves money, Couric may or may not rehabilitate her image. At this point in her career, the smart move is to ride it out. When her contract ends, she takes a year off, then goes to CNN and does her best Jeraldo Rivera imitation.