Katie Couric: Surprisingly Sensible

It's almost impossible for any conservative to be a fan of Katie Couric -- the oh-so-perky committed liberal slated to anchor the "CBS Evening News."

But she did show herself at least to be a person of good sense in her recent comments about whether she'd journey to the Middle East to don a flak jacket and cover the burgeoning war. "I think the situation there is so dangerous, and as a single parent with two children, that's something I won't be doing," Couric said.

No doubt the same feminists who nipped at the heels of Elizabeth Vargas when she stepped down as ABC anchor will bay at the moon once more. After all, women must feel no special obligation either to bear or raise children in order to be truly "liberated."

But the fact is that Couric is exactly right. Her husband is dead, and if she's killed covering the war for CBS, her children will be orphans -- and no responsible parent could ever deliberately court that risk.

In an era when, frankly, any number of correspondents can report from a war zone as ably as an anchorman him (or her) self -- and the audience knows it -- it's a bit silly anyway to cherish the notion that the news is somehow more authentic or genuine simply because one television reporter is covering it, rather than another.

And like it or not, the feminists are going to have to come to grips with the fact that Couric wasn't chosen to anchor the CBS news because she's a heck of a war reporter. It's because she's a celebrity, with enormous appeal to women -- appeal that won't be diminished one bit because she understands the special responsibility that comes with being a mother.