The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz (6/21/10) write aboutthe investigative journalism produced by the Center for Public Integrity, and wonders about its independence: The center has also received grants–including $300,000 last year–from the Open Society Institute founded by liberal philanthropist George Soros, sparking questions about whether its news agenda leans to the left. "We have a very clear firewall editorially," Buzenberg says. "We decide what we want to do and how we want to do it." Donors, he says, "may hate it and they may never fund us again, that's their right. . . . It isn't free to produce. We've [...]
Jun
14
2010
Howard Kurtz and the Problem of Helen Thomas
By 26 Comments
People have interpreted the Helen Thomas controversy an number of ways.Some weredisappointed in her remarks,sincethey are overshadowing the fact that for years she's asked questions aboutissues that the rest of the press corps didn't care about. Others have suggested that Thomas'questions about war and the killings of civilians werea warning sign,and that other journalists shouldhave stepped in to stop her sooner. That's the view of the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, who led his piece today (6/14/10) with this: There she goes again. That was the eye-rolling reaction in the White House pressroom when Helen Thomas would go off on one [...]
Apr
16
2010
Howard Kurtz and Tea Party Coverage: Too Much Is Not Enough
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From his Web column today (4/16/10): After initially dismissing the tea types as an unimportant sideshow, the media are drinking deeply from that particular cup, especially with today being Tax Day and all. If by "dismissing" Kurtz means "featuring on the network evening newscasts," he might have a point–since that's how last year's Tea Party Tax Day protests were actuallycovered. But Kurtz has always had weird ideas about how much coverage the Tea Party events should receive. A year ago he criticized several newspapers for not devoting enough coverage to the protests–though the actual protests, uhh, hadn't happened yet: "The [...]
Mar
15
2010
Fox Reporters Worried About Their 'Credibility'
By 28 Comments
The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz turns in a profile of Glenn Beck today (3/15/10)that includes a few interesting anecdotes.He reports that "Fox staffers note that veteran producer Gresham Striegel left the network after clashing with Beck and say the host has surrounded himself with loyalists" from his own radio company, and that "a vice president was assigned 'to help keep an eye on that program' and review its content in advance–a full-time job." Kurtz also notes that some Fox reporters aren't crazy about what his new fame is doing to them: Beck has become a constant topic of conversation among [...]
Dec
14
2009
Kurtz Covers for Post, Palin
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The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz spends his Sunday mornings as the host of Reliable Sources, the media criticism show on CNN. Yesterday (12/13/09), one segment concerned the Washington Post's decision to print an op-ed (12/9/09) on "Climategate" by Sarah Palin. It prompted this exchange with guest John Aravosis of Americablog: ARAVOSIS: What newspapers aren't supposed to do is present an issue that's already decided as being a he said/she said of, hey, half the people say yes, half the people say no. KURTZ: So you say it's already decided. ARAVOSIS: Ninety percent of scientists believe global warming is manmade. KURTZ: [...]
Oct
27
2009
Fox's Phony Debates
By 7 Comments
When Fox News Channel was developing Sean Hannity's TV show, it was known as Hannity & Liberal To Be Determined. That liberal turned out to be Alan Colmes, who would eventually leave the gig after doing his part by playing the Washington Generals to Hannity's Harlem Globetrotters. It hardly mattered who sat in the "left" chair–they were there to get roughed up by the home team. Until recently, professor Jane Hall was a regular guest on the O'Reilly Factor, debating conservative Bernie Goldberg. She's left Fox, and as she explained to CNN's Howard Kurtz (10/25/09), she never considered herself a [...]
Oct
13
2009
Is Engel Too Opinionated–or Does He Have the Wrong Opinion?
By 8 Comments
When NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Richard Engel recently returned from Afghanistan, he told MSNBC's Morning Joe, "I honestly think it's probably time to start leaving the country." Engel added, "I really don't see how this is going to end in anything but tears." Engel's comments caused Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz (10/12/09) to raise an eyebrow at a reporter stating an opinion: "That sounds awfully opinionated for a working reporter," wrote Kurtz. But we had to wonder if what really attracted Kurtz's scrutiny was Engel's stating of an opinion, or the opinion itself? After all, for years FAIR [...]
Aug
07
2009
Snarky WaPo-er 'Surprised by the Ferocity out There'
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Howard Kurtz recently offered fellow Washington Post reporters Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza a chance to apologize for having, in an online Post feature, "implied Hillary Clinton was a 'bitch.'" But American Prospect's Tapped blogger Adam Serwer (8/5/09) has a question regarding Milbank's aside that "it's a brutal world out there in the blogosphere…. I'm often surprised by the ferocity out there, but I probably shouldn't be": What's the sound of a million hands facepalming? No one who goes around using obscenities to describe other reporters and administration officials should be complaining about the "ferocity" of blogs–if Milbank is bothered [...]
Jul
02
2009
Too Much Truth in Advertising at the WaPo?
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The business department at the Washington Post has gotten into trouble in what may be a case of too much truth in advertising. As reported by Politico (7/2/09), the Post circulated a flyer offering–for the low, low cost of $25,000–an "intimate and exclusive Washington Post salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and publisher Katharine Weymouth." The circular promised the participation of "key Obama administration and congressional leaders" as well as "healthcare reporting and editorial staff members of the Washington Post." Lest anyone be confused as to why dinner at the Post's publisher's house would be [...]
May
11
2009
Google, the Journalism-Killing Vacuum
We've written about this before, but today (5/11/09) the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz turned in another example of journalists who seem to believe Google is what's killing their industry.Responding totalks between his employer and Google about some sort of collaboration, Kurtz writes: Hanging over the talks is the reality that the search giant, while funneling vital traffic to news sites, vacuums up their content without paying a dime. I'm not sure what it is that Google is accused of "vacuuming." Kurtz is likely referring to Google News, which lets users search manymedia outlets at once. The main Google News page [...]
May
04
2009
The Right's Echo Chamber Reverberates on 'Reliable Sources'
Reliable Sources host Howard Kurtz (5/3/09) seemed startled when the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza argued that "just because Bush or some previous president didn't garner as much coverage as Michelle and Barack Obama did doesn't tell you anything about press bias one way or another." "Are you kidding?" Kurtz exclaimed. He didn't express any similar surprise when CNN in-house conservative Amy Holmes came up with this "little-known fact": The Washington Times reported this last week…. Actually, at this point in his presidency, Barack Obama is the fourth least popular of the past five presidents. You wouldn't know that from the [...]
Apr
15
2009
Tea Parties and False Balance
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With Fox News Channel relentlessly promoting–and MSNBC mostly mocking– the right-wing "tea party" demonstrations around the country today, middle-of-the-road media critics are making a typically middle-of-the-road complaint: Yes, Fox shouldn't be sponsoring such events, but the rest of the corporate media shouldn't just ignore these allegedly newsworthy events. As Howard Kurtz put it in the Washington Post today: Some Fox News hosts have been pushing the tea party protests slated for hundreds of cities today, almost to the point that they seem to be the ringmasters of the event. "It's now my great duty to promote the tea parties. Here [...]
