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Yesterday on the "Evening News," anchor Katie Couric interviewed actor and activist Michael J. Fox. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, has been in the spotlight over an ad in which he lauds Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill and criticizes McCaskill opponent Jim Talent over their positions on stem cell research. Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has suggested that Fox, whose body was rocking from side to side during the ad, was "either off his medication or acting" when he filmed the spot.

After her interview with Fox, Couric said the following: "By the way, in the spirit of full disclosure, I think it's important to mention that my dad has Parkinson's disease. He told me today it's okay to tell you that. And in the past, I've made contributions for Parkinson's research through Michael J. Fox's foundation.”

I asked Couric about the disclosure.

"The reason I donated to his foundation is because of my father. It was a combination of my admiration for Michael and my personal experience with my dad," she said. Couric said she had introduced people at events for Fox's foundation in the past, and she didn't want people to suggest she was trying to hide her connection to him.

Did her personal experience with Parkinson's influence the way that she conducted the interview or framed the story?

"I don't feel like it really reflected or influenced my approach," said Couric.

"I think I probably have even more sympathy for his situation, and I think I understand the science better than some other people," she said. "But I challenged him on questions people who support stem cell research would not necessarily want asked" – such as ethical "slippery slope" questions inherent in embryonic stem cell research and the notion that such research could conceivably be done exclusively in the private sector.

Couric also said she "wanted to be responsible to Rush Limbaugh's true feelings." She said many news outlets only excerpted the most incendiary clip of Limbaugh's comments, and that it was important to provide a full accounting of his views. During the interview with Fox, Couric read a comment that Limbaugh made directly to the "Evening News."

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Michael J. Fox might just do a hell of an impression of a guy with severe Parkinson's. Or so says Rush Limbaugh, who claimed Fox was "either off his medication or acting" in an ad for Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill. "In this commercial, he is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He is moving all around and shaking. And it's purely an act," said Limbaugh. In the ad, Fox backs McCaskill's support for embryonic stem cell research and criticizes her opponent's position. You can watch it by clicking on the box.

Limbaugh subsequently stepped back from the comment. "All I'm saying is I've never seen him the way he appears in this commercial for Claire McCaskill," he said. "So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act, especially since people are telling me they have seen him this way on other interviews and in other television appearances."

Here's what William J. Weiner M.D., professor and chairman of the department of neurology at the University of Maryland Medical Center, told the New Republic on the matter:

What you are seeing on the video is side effects of the medication. He has to take that medication to sit there and talk to you like that. ... He's not over-dramatizing. ... [Limbaugh] is revealing his ignorance of Parkinson's disease, because people with Parkinson's don't look like that at all when they're not taking their medication. They look stiff, and frozen, and don't move at all. ... People with Parkinson's, when they've had the disease for awhile, are in this bind, where if they don't take any medication, they can be stiff and hardly able to talk. And if they do take their medication, so they can talk, they get all of this movement, like what you see in the ad.

The Fox ad has created quite a stir even before Limbaugh's comments. A response to the spot, focused primarily on a proposed amendment to the state constitution regarding stem cell research, has shown up on Youtube. It features Jim "Jesus" Caviezel, who speaks in Aramaic as the ad opens, Kurt Warner, Patricia Heaton, and others, and you can watch it here.

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