Make sure you have your irony meds handy.

In possibly the most craven example of concern trolling and journalistic assault I’ve ever seen, guest host Dagen McDowell led a discussion of whether Katie Couric is a bad, irresponsible mom for making the decision to go to Iraq to report on that news stuff that’s happening over there.

One guest for this discussion was Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America, which is (Surprise! Surprise!) a conservative Republican/Christian organization “with a rich 28-year history of helping our members across the country bring Biblical principles into all levels of public policy” while insuring, among other things, “that neither the United Nations nor any other international organization should have authority over the United States in any area.” So she’s obviously an authority on journalism. The other guest was Susan Estrich, a law professor. I assume FOX didn’t invite any experts on journalism because that discussion would be over too fast.

Among other clever insights, Crouse had this to say:

It’s a clear act of desperation. I find it very sad.
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Here [Couric] is, going off to iraq, paying absolutely no attention to the fact that her children have already lost one parent, and here she is putting herself in harm’s way. We’ve already had more than 100 journalists die in Iraq, and I think it’s very sad to see Katie having her priorities so determined by her ambition rather than for her children’s welfare. I think it’s a warped perspective.
-Snip-
This is a clear publicity stunt.
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This is totally uncalled for.
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She is saying “my ratings are more important than my children.”

Won’t anyone PLEASE think of the children?!? The idea that Crouse is only speaking out to protect Couric’s kids and remind Couric (since she’s “paying absolutely no attention”) that her husband died in 1998 and that her death would make her kids parentless is so unbelievably insulting and repulsive that it makes me gag. Are the musings of this conservative whackjob into the inner thoughts and motivations of Katie Couric really news? What qualifies Crouse to talk about this other than the fact that she is a conservative Christian republican?

If Crouse is really concerned about this, she should fight for a law that no single parent should serve during wartime, nor should two parents be allowed to serve simultaneously. Or perhaps Crouse is protecting those conservative Christian/republican values of women “knowing their place”, that the “ambition” Couric is displaying is just code for “feminazism”, and that a woman’s place is in the home where it’s safe. Pumping out babies. Preferably wearing a burqa.

And the idea that anyone on FOX is somehow fit to judge the journalistic practices of ANYONE is totally absurd. This from the “news” channel that covers the Iraq war less than any other channel. This from the “news” channel that features Bill O’Reilly, who said that violence in Iraq “doesn’t mean anything”, compared car bombs to car accidents, and said that reporting what’s happening in Iraq helps terrorists. This from the “news” channel that features John Gibson, who said that not reporting on the Iraq war gives US troops “a chance to win.” You can see from the clip that FOX can’t even fathom why a journalist would actually want to go to where the news is in order to report on it. I don’t consider news anchors to be journalists, but I admire Couric for putting herself in danger to try to gain more insight into a story that all Americans need to know more about. 

But FOX wouldn’t know journalism if it crapped in their mouths. They don’t do any reporting — they wait for the Bush administration and the Republicans to tell them what to report and how to report it. They don’t give their viewers the news, they tell their viewers what to think about the news they carefully select to strengthen scare their viewers into supporting republicans and Bush. It’s the same reason they hardly did any reporting on the Larry Craig scandal the day it broke. They didn’t have their orders yet.

This is also a good illustration of FOX “balance”. Yes, this story had guests who represented opposing viewpoints. But when you throw in the host, it always makes it two against one, always favoring the Republican/conservative side. McDowell is supposed to be the moderator, but all she did was attack Couric.

Is crap like this story the “balance” needed to combat the mythical “liberal media”? This is news?

P.S.    This clip is from FOX’s daily BUSINESS show. Anyone see any business there?