Katie Couric’s latest interview with Sen. John Fetterman was an ugly display of the media’s new hobby: weaponizing grief to score partisan points. Couric repeatedly tried to box Fetterman into condemning the late Charlie Kirk and questioning the Trump administration’s decisions to honor him, asking about flags at half-staff, Air Force Two and a posthumous medal. The Pennsylvania senator refused to take the bait and kept the focus where it belonged — on the horror of political violence and the right of Americans to grieve — while Couric kept pushing for a gotcha.
Fetterman’s answers showed more decency and common sense than Couric’s persistent prodding, as he stressed that nothing Kirk said justified the brutal assassination and that free speech must be defended even from those we disagree with. Instead of reflexive outrage, he pointed out the obvious: extreme rhetoric does not excuse violence and the conversation should center on stopping political murder, not scoring points. Conservatives were right to applaud Fetterman for refusing to engage in Couric’s bait-and-switch tactics.
Even Fox viewers watched in disbelief as Couric tried to shame a grieving nation into condemning how people chose to mourn a murdered conservative leader. Kayleigh McEnany, joining Fox & Friends Weekend to weigh in, didn’t hesitate — she called out Couric’s line of questioning and rightly demanded decency and restraint from a once-respected journalist now chasing headlines. This wasn’t journalism; it was performative moralizing that treated a political assassination like a scoring opportunity.
The outrage didn’t stop on cable. The White House and multiple conservative voices publicly blasted Couric for trying to weaponize Charlie Kirk’s death into a partisan lecture, with senior officials and pundits calling her behavior shameful and tone-deaf. Americans across the spectrum watched a media elite rush to exploit tragedy instead of showing basic human respect, and that reaction speaks to a larger rot in legacy outlets that have traded fairness for clickbait.
This episode is another example of the double standard the mainstream press applies to conservatives: when a right-leaning figure is attacked or even murdered, the media’s first instinct too often is to politicize the victim and lecture the grieving. Enough. Hardworking Americans are tired of sanctimonious anchors who pretend to be above politics while clearly picking sides, and they’re not fooled by manufactured outrage. The media should be holding politicians and thugs accountable for violence, not asking victims’ opponents to apologize for their existence.
If the press wants to rebuild any credibility, it should start by showing some humility and common decency — especially when human lives are involved. Conservatives will keep calling out these stunts, defending free speech and insisting that political disagreements never justify murder or public shaming of the bereaved. Let this be a wake-up call: the American people respect courage and compassion more than cheap gotcha moments, and reporters who forget that will keep losing viewers and trust.
