Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

Is Howard Kurtz a “Reliable Source”?

“… President Bush in that
press conference showed what Stephen Colbert showed, a lot of truthiness,
I think. I think we need a new word, “liarishness.” - Craig Crawford … … …

“The President, Craig Crawford, spoke
in Kansas for an hour and forty minutes, all the cable networks took it live.
He took a lot of questions. Are the media — we heard the same thing during
the Clinton administration — being unfair and unbalanced to the minority?
I mean, Harry Reid doesn't get an hour and forty minutes when he speaks. He
doesn't get a minute forty, in terms of live coverage.” – Howard Kurtz

“I think that is a fair point. Many
of the alternative voices in our politics get drowned out and covered up by
the media. But I also think the blog community, we're seeing a lot of alternative
voices emerging now on the Internet now in ways that I think are changing
some of the politics of the Internet, from the conservative dominance of it
from years before.” – Craig Crawford

… … “I do think that this almost
Fidel Castro like appearance of the president where he was out there for that
marathon of over an hour, that in and of itself is news as well.” – Karen
Tumulty

“Reliable Sources” on CNN

Cable news has taken on a sort of Ozark mountain mentality. It's
incestuous, prefers its own media family members, and doesn't think its own
behavior is anyone elses business.

Howard Kurtz is a columnist for the Washington Post. Talking about
bad boy athletes today on “Reliable Sources,” Kurtz's critical look
at the media, he invited Mike Wise of the Washington Post and Jack McCallum
of Sports Illustrated. CNN is owned by Time Warner, as is Sports Illustrated.

All you needed was the theme of “Deliverance” to complete
the big media orgy.

Kurtz followed this menage a trois of cozy clanship with Karen
Tumulty of Time.

All this interfamily media mingling is like watching a bunch of
journalistic Bonobos getting down with their own, only even monkeys prohibit
some behavior between the breed.

Now just because organizations are related in the big corporate
jungle doesn't mean individual reporters aren't reporting the truth, giving
unbiased stories, or offering the public a side of a story that isn't valuable.
But in the case of Howard Kurtz, you've really got to wonder if he's now become
just another talking head. Sure, he gave the last segment to the whole issue
of the press pimping for the president, but there was one story glaringly absent.

Where was the Deborah Howell story?
Where was the blogger panel that has become such a frequent presence on “Reliable
Sources,” which would have been a perfect forum on which to discuss the Howell issue? Glenn Reynolds, a frequent guest on “Reliable Sources,” also took part in the panel discussion, so why no panel, no discussion of an event that happened this past week?

It was nowhere, baby, because evidently the Post taking a beating
is news that's not fit to print or discuss on “Reliable Sources,”
especially when Kurtz is put in a position of doing critical reporting on his
own organization. Funny, that wasn't the case with Bob Woodward.

What's so special about Deborah Howell? Why is she
being made the exception to the “Reliable Sources” rule? Or does nobody
really care about the reality of her mistake, which is reporting the wrong facts
about the Jack Abramoff scandal? Or is it that there are so many scandals to
keep the public's eye riveted, at some point you've just got to limit the output?

Howard Kurtz had a multitude of angles on which to delve into
the Deborah Howell story, but instead he chose to walk away from it entirely.
Are we to believe talking about bad boy athletes is more important than covering
the battle between the blogs and a mainstream stalwart like the Washington Post?

Howie's show is all about taking a critical eye at the media.
So, again I ask, after a big open chat about the reporting of the Washington
Post ombudsman, in which Deborah Howell chose not to participate, why is it
that Howie Kurtz opted to ignore this story?

It couldn't be because he works for the Washington Post, and the
bloggers, led by Matt Stoller and Jane Hamsher, won the argument this week,
could it?

Disclosure: This humble blogger is the moderator of Open Letter
to the Washington Post.