On the October 12 edition of CNN's Live Today, CNN host and Washington Post staff writer Howard Kurtz described Sinclair Broadcast Group's one-sided assault on Senator John Kerry over his Vietnam-era activities through its planned broadcast of the anti-Kerry film Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal. But Kurtz himself offered a one-sided recitation of the charges against Kerry, not bothering to correct the clear falsehoods he was repeating.

Here's how Kurtz began his report:

KURTZ: There are two sides to the John Kerry Vietnam story.

While Kurtz gave viewers the impression that he would actually give them both sides, he didn't; rather, Kurtz just repeated allegations in the anti-Kerry film and noted broadly that Kerry supporters say some of the allegations aren't true. What he didn't say was that those allegations are, in fact, not true. Moreover, Kurtz didn't say that the one side he quoted has been thoroughly discredited, a fact that Kurtz himself clearly knows and has previously reported:

KURTZ: Amid the sound and fury, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post and New York Times began poking holes in the Swift Boat Veterans' allegations. Three of the veterans, George Elliott, Adrian Lonsdale and Roy Hoffmann, had previously praised Kerry for bravery. Thurlow says there was no enemy fire when Kerry turned his boat around to pull crewmate Jim Rassmann out of a river. ... But Thurlow's own Bronze Star citation says there was enemy fire. [CNN, NewsNight with Aaron Brown, 8/24/04]

In his October 12 report, Kurtz listed the false allegations promoted by the film, which he didn't bother to correct:

KURTZ: Detractors question the circumstances of some of those decorations and focus on Kerry's rhetoric as an antiwar activist when he returned home.

[Swift Boat ad clip]: Accused all Vietnam veterans of unspeakable horrors.

Kurtz didn't correct the Swift Boat Vets' lie: Kerry did not accuse “all” Vietnam veterans of anything. It simply didn't happen, as Kurtz must know -- that allegation against Kerry has been repeatedly debunked.

More from Kurtz:

KURTZ: In the days before the election, Sinclair Broadcasting will be showing only one side. The company has ordered its 62 stations, from Baltimore to Sacramento, to air the anti-Kerry film Stolen Honor. It's made by former Washington Times reporter and decorated Vietnam veteran Carlton Sherwood.

Kurtz didn't mention another important detail about Sherwood: he served in the Bush administration, and worked for Bush's homeland security director, Tom Ridge, when Ridge was governor of Pennsylvania.

Back to Kurtz, continuing directly:

KURTZ: And it argues that with his anti-war testimony in 1971, Kerry was branding all American soldiers as 'baby killers', 'war criminals', and 'deranged, drug-addicted psychopaths'.

Again, Kurtz didn't bother to correct this false charge -- in fact, he did not even bother to note that Kerry, and many others, deny the allegation. Kurtz took the same approach in his October 12 Washington Post article, in which he noted that “Sherwood has said he felt vilified by Kerry's antiwar comments and believes the candidate branded all Vietnam veterans as 'war criminals'” -- but didn't include any rebuttal of this false charge.

More from the October 12 edition of Live Today:

KURTZ: [E]ven if the movie is newsworthy, airing only a one-sided attack on Kerry would be like the networks deciding that the end of October would be the ideal time to run Michael Moore's anti-Bush film, Fahrenheit 9/11.

We couldn't have said it better ourselves. The question is: why is Kurtz airing a one-sided piece that repeats false attacks on Kerry without correcting them or even noting that they've been denied?

Kurtz's repetition of false allegations against Kerry, without noting that they are false, or even that they have been denied, is exactly the sort of behavior that was recently criticized by none other than ... Howard Kurtz:

KURTZ: [H]ow many people would ordinarily have seen this Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ad based on a half-million-dollar buy in just three states? Answer, not many, but that was before the media, and especially cable television, began serving as a megaphone for charges about John Kerry's military record without having the slightest idea whether those charges were true. And when the cable circuit began debating whether Kerry deserved his Silver Star and his Bronze Star and his three Purple Hearts in Vietnam, viewers were also left wondering what was true. [CNN, NewsNight with Aaron Brown, 8/24/04]