Fox News media critic Howard Kurtz echoed his colleague Shepard Smith's admonishment of media for irresponsible Ebola coverage, highlighting his own network's reporting failures.

Kurtz called out media figures like Fox host Bill O'Reilly, who has demanded the resignation of CDC director Tom Frieden, for reducing their response to Ebola “to a question of which heads should roll.”

He contrasted coverage like O'Reilly's to that of Fox's Shepard Smith, who made headlines this week for blasting media's “irresponsible” and “hysterical” Ebola coverage. Smith “challenged his own profession to stop scaring people,” Kurtz explained, asking, “Will the media listen?”

From Kurtz's October 17 column:

There's a growing media drumbeat on how to fix the Ebola crisis.

Tom Frieden should resign!

[...]

[D]oes anyone really believe that turning CDC over to an acting director will quickly boost the agency's performance?

Bill O'Reilly has demanded that Frieden be fired, calling him the “chief propagandist” for the “dumb and dangerous” approach of expecting airport screening to be able to keep infected people out of the United States.  

[...]

Another doctor, Fox contributor Manny Alvarez, says:

"I am more convinced than ever that CDC director, Dr. Tom Frieden is not the right person for the job. And I say this because this latest press conference consisted of him telling a room of reporters what anyone who has ever dealt with Ebola in the past should have known...

“Frieden showed up late to the game again on Ebola, which is not acceptable when lives are at stake.”