As ThinkProgress reported today, Fox News attacked CBS rival and single mother Katie Couric for her upcoming trip to Iraq. But while Neil Cavuto, John Gibson and the gang at Fox grew hysterical about Couric, they remained silent about 26 year old Michelle Ring and other single mothers fighting for the United States in Iraq.
The issue for Fox, of course, is that anyone else's coverage of Iraq inevitably brings the facts of Bush's Baghdad fiasco directly to American television screens. But in a new low even for Fox, Couric (whose husband passed away from colon cancer in 1998) was accused of placing her children at risk all in the name of ratings. As guest Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for American put it:

"She's saying my ratings are more important than my children. That's the bottom line."

If only Fox News would focus such concern on all of the American single mothers who are fighting - and dying - for us in Iraq. That would include women like Michelle Ring of the 92nd Military Police Battalion based in Fort Benning, Georgia. Ring, who joined the Army in 2005, recently reenlisted with the hope of becoming a military police officer. Ring was killed by mortar fire on July 5th while on guard duty.
At her July 16th funeral service in Portland, Oregon, Ring was praised by Lt. Col. Leonard Cosby from her unit, who declared "The soldiers of the battalion I represent are better for having known your daughter." Master Sgt. Ronald Barnes added "She was never afraid to get her hands dirty and get the task done, no matter what it was."
Ring is just one of many American single mother soldiers among the 76 servicewomen killed in Iraq. Lori Piestewa, killed in the Iraq war's opening days, left behind children ages 3 and 4. (Ring's sons are 5 and 7.) But far from limiting their duty or receiving special protection (as Tucker Carlson suggested), Lory Manning of the Women in the Military Project says women in the military just want to serve their country:

"We should be protecting the men from being killed, too. Men and women are soldiers. And we have never, ever tried to protect women more than men."

Say what you will about Katie Couric and her motives in going to Iraq. But the key is that she is going to Iraq. After all, Americans should expect nothing less than that their highest-profile journalists would cover the biggest story of our age.
Which is precisely the problem for Fox News, whose Republican partisan politics result in half the Iraq war coverage of MSNBC and CNN. But then again, no one ever accused them of being journalists.