From Howard Kurtz’s CNN bio:
Howard Kurtz is the host of the weekly CNN program Reliable Sources, which turns a critical lens on the media. Kurtz leads the scrutinizing of the media’s fairness and objectivity by questioning journalists of top news organizations, including those at CNN.
Kurtz is the media reporter for The Washington Post and writes a regular column called Media Notes.
Howard Kurtz in action:
From the September 12 edition of CNN Headline News’ Glenn Beck:
KURTZ: Look, I’m not — look. Keith
Olbermann is somebody who interviews people and spouts off on cable and has had
some success doing it. And I think he’s very talented. But I think those
comments — Al Qaeda, Ku Klux Klan — are so over the top, it’s just
beneath him. It’s beneath the kind of erudition I would expect from him.BECK: Do you — do you even
understand what he was talking about?KURTZ: I think the argument that I’ve heard Olbermann make in the past
about Fox News — it’s not an argument that I embrace — is that, because
it poses as a news organization and puts out dangerous misinformation —BECK: But that’s what he’s doing!
KURTZ: — and is — is a cheerleader for the Bush administration, that
it’s misinforming our society. But you know what?BECK: Howard —
KURTZ: They’re entitled to do that.
For your edification, here is what Olbermann said about al-Qaeda and the KKK.
“Al Qaeda really hurt us, but not as much as Rupert Murdoch has hurt us, particularly in the case of Fox News. Fox News is worse than Al Qaeda — worse for our society. It’s as dangerous as the Ku Klux Klan ever was.”
It might seem a tab bit over the top since Brit Hume never flew an airplane into a building and the only lynching Bill O’Reilly has carried out was of the virtual variety. But Fox News does get people killed indirectly…because they help keep a good portion of America in the dark about the reality on the ground in Iraq…and thereby help sustain a war that should never have been launched. But that’s not really the point of my posting about Kurtz.
In what world is Fox News entitled to:
1. ‘Pose as a news organization’, a la Jeff Gannon.
2. ‘Put out dangerous misinformation.’
3. ‘Cheerlead for the Bush administration.’
4. ‘Misinform our society.’
It’s currently legal if that is what Kurtz means.
