Keep in mind, his day job is being a media critic.

That said, here's Kurtz crowing today:

I took some heat a few weeks ago for quoting a radio industry analyst as saying that Rush Limbaugh's ratings had surged during his vociferous battle with the White House. Now Brian Maloney at Radio Equalizer has the numbers to show that my piece was on target.

The heat came courtesy of yours truly. And according to Kurtz's convenient telling today, he was right about Limbaugh's ratings and I was wrong to question his work. Except that Kurtz--a media critic by profession--leaves out all kinds of pertinent information and misleads readers about what he actually wrote.

This is what he wrote on March 6. It was the first sentence of his news report [emphasis added]:

By one measure, Rush Limbaugh is a clear winner this week: His ratings have nearly doubled since his feud with the White House burst into the media limelight.

Note that Kurtz did not, as he insists today, claim Limbaugh's ratings had “surged.” That's what he should have written. Instead, Kurtz stated as fact that Limbaugh's ratings had nearly doubled; that they were up 80-90 percent nationwide. I jumped all over that because there was simply no proof; no proof in the article (the referenced “industry analyst” simply gave Kurtz a guesstimate), and no proof within the radio industry since syndicated ratings for shows like Limbaugh's aren't turned around that fast. Indeed, the very next day, Kurtz's Post colleague wrote an article explaining why nobody really has any idea what Limbaugh's ratings are.

That's the back story, and please note how Kurtz a) isn't accurate about what he previously wrote re: Limbaugh's ratings and b) doesn't provide a link so readers can see what he wrote. It's up to CF to explain what's going on.

Now, back to the current ratings. Kurtz says he's vindicated because a conservative blogger posted some ratings information for a handful of major market stations where Limbaugh is broadcast and where the stations enjoyed a big jump in audience size. Kurtz quotes from Maloney's cheerleading piece and cites five markets where Limbaugh is up; five out of the 300+ stations Limbaugh is reportedly heard on. But in those five markets, there's not one in which Limbaugh's show has “nearly doubled” its ratings. Not one. But today Kurtz claims he was right all along.

And is it just me, or is it odd that a media writer for the Washington Post is reporting about radio ratings that he doesn't even have access to? As far as I know, conservative blogger Maloney is the only one who's published the Rush numbers. (A gift from the show?) Are the numbers accurate? I'll assume they are. But when was the last time Kurtz turned to a partisan blogger to confirm hard ratings information? Shouldn't Kurtz wait until he, or someone else at the Post, can independently go over the ratings info instead of just assuming that a partisan blog is speaking the unvarnished truth about Limbaugh's audience growth?

UPDATE: Maybe I should claim vindication as well, since on March 9, I wrote, “Have Limbaugh's numbers spiked in recent weeks? I'd be shocked if they hadn't given the extraordinary publicity he's received.”

See, just like Kurtz, I had it right all along.

UPDATE: The Media Bloodhound has some more on Kurtz woes.