It's a controversial story, but Katie on April 11 was apparently in the mood to be controversial. And then someone at CBS changed their (her?) mind. Maybe in the aftermath of the Imus uproar, it dawned on someone that people have to be extremely careful what they say about anyone even if that person happens to be a political enemy of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Suddenly (in the late afternoon of Friday, April 13, the link to Katie's video clip went instead to the Imus coverage. Who knows what it goes to now. Her original blog post as linked by the DrudgeReport got heavily "redacted" by someone at CBS (with Katie's permission?) and the little monitor that would allow one to view the original clip had disappeared. Even the YouTube clip has been taken private. Fortunately, we can provide a transcript of the clip which got relegated to the CBS dustbin of history before it was even three days old. And, again, here's what her original post said. Transcript: Hi everyone. Is America ready to elect a president who grew up praying in a mosque? Barack Obama has arguably the most diverse religious background of any candidate, ever. He was raised in Indonesia by a Christian mother and Muslim stepfather and attended a Catholic school, but while growing up, also studied Islam. That background sparked rumors that he had studied in a radical madrassa or Koranic school - rumors his campaign denied, declaring that Obama is now a practicing Christian. Last month, the Los Angeles Times interviewed people who grew up with Obama. "We prayed in the mosque," one of them said, "but not seriously," noting that Obama also prayed with his Catholic schoolmates. It's too soon to know what America will decide about Barack Obama or his background, but it's not too soon to wonder if America will see that as an assset or a liability. That's a page from my notebook. I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

FLASHBACK:      MON       TUES       WED       THU       FRI            FAR OUT BLOG