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Is Howard Kurtz a political pundit or a media critic?

September 23, 2009 10:05 am ET by Jamison Foser

Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz on Monday:

We have two other news stories in today's Post about the substance of what the president said. My job is to be the media critic.

That second sentence is noteworthy because Kurtz often seems to forget this.  That morning's column, for example, was more an assessment of Barack Obama than of the media.  Today's runs nearly 1,400 words, but if you want to find any media criticism in it, you better bring a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers.  One section, for example, consists of nothing other than Kurtz printing two paragraphs of Glenn Beck's attacks on Mark Lloyd.  Another is all about political peril for Democrats.  Another is devoted to reprinting excerpts of other reporters' excerpts of Taylor Branch's transcripts of conversations with Bill Clinton.

Anyway, in playing amateur political pundit rather than professional media critic, Kurtz has been pushing the "Obama is overexposed" theme hard.  So I was curious to see if he'd mention the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that found only 34 percent of Americans feel that they "see and hear President Obama too much," while 54 percent say they see and hear him the right amount, and 9 percent would like more.  Kurtz does mention it, but only in passing -- and doesn't mention that the poll undermines his own arguments that Obama is "overexposed."

I guess that's the kind of thing a media critic would do.

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    • Author by fabucat58 (September 23, 2009 10:29 am ET)
         
      Call out Kurtz for what he really is. A REPUBLICAN TOOL!
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    • Author by roland (September 23, 2009 5:05 pm ET)
         
      I heard him yesterday morning on the Don Imus show. When he was asked about the FOX ad accusing CNN and others of not covering the tea parties, Kurtz was quick to point out that the ad was untrue.

      Funny how when the lie is aimed at his own network, he calls it for what it is. When it's aimed at someone else (like, say, the president) he often resorts to the he-said/she-said style of argumentation.
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