A couple of weeks ago, I noted that Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz expressed bewilderment that people believe lies about health care -- even as he was validating people who tell lies about health care, like Fred Barnes:

Here's an example: Later in today's column, Kurtz quotes Fred Barnes' latest Wall Street Journal column. In that column, Barnes promotes the death panel nonsense that Howard Kurtz knows and says is false. Yet not only does Kurtz quote the Barnes column, he doesn't write a single word of criticism of Barnes. (He does quote Time's Joe Klein blasting Barnes, but doing it this way sets up a he-said/she-said in which some readers will dismiss Klein's views.)

This, Mr. Kurtz, is why people like Barnes feel free to spread lies: They know people like you will keep quoting them as though they are serious thinkers who deserve a place at the center of the public dialogue.

So who do you think Kurtz gives the last word about Barack Obama's speech tonight in today's Media Notes column? That's right: Fred Barnes.

If you treat people who spread lies as respectable and important thinkers, they're going to keep telling lies. If they keep telling lies, the public will believe lies. I suppose you can come up with a justification for why treating them as respectable and important thinkers constitutes acceptable journalistic practice, but you certainly can't smack your head in wonder at the fact that the public believes lies told by the people you are treating as respectable and important thinkers.

Meanwhile, in an online discussion yesterday, Kurtz continued to suggest the media debunked the “death panel” nonsense as well as they could have:

Re: Numerous news organizations said flatly that this was a bogus charge, and yet, for a great many Americans, it didn't matter.: I wonder if this points to a basic problem for “traditional” media -- one that may not be easily solved. News organizations did point out that the “death panels” did not exist, but it took them a while. The first headlines said “Sarah Palin attacks Obama's 'death panels'”. Then, after there was time to investigate, the stories changed to “nothing in the proposed bills supports Palin's accusations.” I'm paraphrasing, but that was the general idea, and it was too late. The story had already spread through the non-traditional media.

Howard Kurtz: I don't think speed was the issue, as you'll see in the timeline below. But the bogus “death panels” did seem to crowd out other coverage -- in other words, even as journalists said and wrote that there were no such panels, they kept the controversy alive in a way that may have made some people say, hmmm.

From my column last month:

Less than seven hours after Palin posted her charge Aug. 7, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann called it an “absurd idea.” That might have been dismissed as a liberal slam, but the next day, ABC's Bill Weir said on “Good Morning America”: “There is nothing like that anywhere in the pending legislation.”

On Aug. 9, Post reporter Ceci Connolly said flatly in an A-section story: “There are no such 'death panels' mentioned in any of the House bills.” That same day, on NBC's “Meet the Press,” conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks called Palin's assertion “crazy.” CNN's Jessica Yellin said on “State of the Union,” “That's not an accurate assessment of what this panel is.” And on ABC's “This Week,” George Stephanopoulos said: “Those phrases appear nowhere in the bill.”

I have previously explained why Connolly's article was not the effective debunking Kurtz expected it to be. The fact that the nation's most famous media critic is surprised that throwaway line in Connelly's article was insufficient is simply amazing.