"[Carly Fiorina's] position on taxation would deprive women of childcare."
The Hyde Amendment "penalizes poor women terribly."
"You can't be a feminist who says other women can't" have an abortion.
These are just some of the outrageous statements left-wing feminist Gloria Steinem made during an interview with CBS anchor Katie Couric on the latest installment of "@katiecouric," which was posted to the CBSNews.com Web site on June 23.
Couric's responses to the "godmother of the modern women's movement's" absurd claims ranged from silent agreement to reflexive endorsement.
Although the former Playboy Bunny railed against the legislation that banned federal funding of abortion, Couric responded approvingly – "right!" – and changed the subject to the hockey mom every liberal feminist loves to hate:
Since we're on the subject of reproductive rights, can you be a conservative feminist? Sarah Palin recently, I think, rankled some traditional feminists by calling herself a feminist, despite the fact she doesn't espouse many traditional feminist, uh, points of view.
Instead of challenging Steinem's feminist litmus test, Couric, turning to liberal activist Jehmu Greene, asked, "Do you agree with that?"
"I would say that Sarah Palin does not represent many of those same sentiments," Greene responded. The most vigorous defense Couric could muster on Palin's behalf was, "In what way? I mean, why?"
On Steinem's bizarre correlation between low taxes and less access to childcare, the "Evening News" anchor uttered not a decibel of skepticism. Eschewing her journalistic duty to hold interviewees accountable for their pronouncements – particularly the outlandish and unsubstantiated ones – Couric once again undermined her credibility as a professional newswoman.
Click here to view Katie Couric's June 23 interview with Steinem and Greene in its entirety.
--Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
