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Howard Kurtz Cannot Be Serious

July 29, 2009 10:24 am ET by Jamison Foser

In today's "Media Notes" column, Kurtz actually addresses the birther nonsense -- a breakthrough!  But look at what he writes:

The folks who have been pushing the ludicrous claim that Barack Obama wasn't born in the US of A -- a fringe of a fringe -- have gotten way too much media attention. But it's been fascinating to watch how people on the right have handled this embarrassment.

And then Kurtz includes several paragraphs about the birthers, bringing the section to 491 words.

Not mentioned: Lou Dobbs or Jonathan Klein or CNN.

This is ridiculous.  The most prominent of the "folks who have been pushing the ludicrous claim" is CNN's Lou Dobbs.  CNN president Jonathan Klein defends Dobbs, and blasts Dobbs' critics.  And the Washington Post's media critic is afraid to so much as mention them -- and, coincidentally, he draws a paycheck from CNN, too.

It's long past time for the Washington Post's ombudsman and editors to weigh in on Kurtz's behavior.  The problem isn't just that Kurtz has a conflict of interest -- that has long been obvious, and the Post is obviously OK with it.  But Kurtz's refusal to deal with this story appropriately shows that his reporting is affected by that conflict of interest.

Tags: The Washington Post, Howard Kurtz, CNN, Lou Dobbs

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    • Author by MickD (July 29, 2009 10:34 am ET)
      2  
      Losing credibility on this issue will bite him in the arse very soon. Whenever, from now on, he makes a specious or unfair comment, a reader or a forum questioner can simply bring up his non-reporting on the CNN involvement in the birther issue. He's got nothing on that.
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    • Author by magnolialover (July 29, 2009 10:41 am ET)
      1  
      I always wondered, shouldn't media critics, you know, not work for the media? Isn't there a big conflict of interest there?
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      • Author by scootmandubious (July 29, 2009 1:06 pm ET)
        3  
        This is right up there with....shouldn't politicians who are working on reforming health care not be receiving paychecks from the health insurance companies they are supposed to be reforming?

        America is in seriously bad shape.
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    • Author by shaggles (July 29, 2009 11:09 am ET)
      2  
      You can't really call it the fringe of the fringe when you have Lou Dobbs talking about it on a regular basis on CNN.
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      • Author by foghornleghorn (July 29, 2009 11:26 am ET)
        2  
        Kurtz is and always will be a hack.
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        • Author by The_Cat (July 29, 2009 11:52 am ET)
          2  
          True, and hopefully, he will soon be an unemployed hack!
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          • Author by scootmandubious (July 29, 2009 1:10 pm ET)
            2  
            Unemployed? The Washington Post axed Froomkin, whio was the polar opposite of Howard Kurtz in terms of content, credibility, and journalistic integrity.

            I think it is quite clear, the Washington post is exactly where Howard Kurtz belongs.

            I wonder how much extra he will make when WaPo gets those 'salons' going? You know, clients paying for access to the paper's faux journalists.
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    • Author by scootmandubious (July 29, 2009 1:07 pm ET)
      2  
      Maybe Howard's GOP-operative wife has some effect on what Mr. Kurtz writes about every day. Just a thought.
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    • Author by exPostie (August 01, 2009 8:21 am ET)
         
      The Washington Post is a hotbed of incompetence and it goes up to the highest levels. Kurtz is one of their superstars who can write whatever he wants - no one dares get in his way. Besides, 75% of the copy editors have been fired, so who's going to check his work?

      If you look at the Post masthead on page 2 or 3, most of the people at the very top have gotten their jobs in the past two years. Most notably executive editor Marcus Brauchli who came over from the Wall St. Journal.

      And don't expect the Ombudsman to step in. They only pay him to work one day per week.
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