On his show Monday night, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly declared that MSNBC host and Ferguson, Missouri activist Al Sharpton "has become so controversial in America that it's hard to explain how a news agency, NBC, can even have him on the payroll." Mediabuzz host Howard Kurtz agreed, labeling Sharpton's employment with the network "a travesty." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Kurtz pointed to Sharpton "delivering a pretty political speech at the funeral" of Michael Brown and being "the go-to guy for the Obama White House on Ferguson," proclaiming: "It is amazing to me, this just reeks that MSNBC thinks this is acceptable." Moments later, O'Reilly concluded: "I believe that Sharpton almost single-handedly has corrupted NBC News."
Howard Kurtz
On Sunday's Media Buzz, Senator John McCain brushed off Jon Stewart's latest blast at him over the Iraq War. Host Howard Kurtz wondered, "Is Jon Stewart fair to Republicans?" McCain bluntly answered, "No, but it doesn't matter really. He's a comedian." When Kurtz brought up Stewart's "sizable following among young people," the Republican contended that "he's a very entertaining and funny guy, but...when he says things...that are absolutely wrong, he gets away with it."
Earlier in the interview, the Fox News Channel host raised the conservative critique about the liberal media's deferential treatment of President Obama. Kurtz wondered if that was less true since his second inauguration: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
Juan Williams, former National Public Radio reporter and current Fox News contributor, threw some cold water over the liberal media’s obsession with illegal immigration Jose Vargas.
Appearing as a panelist on Fox News’ Media Buzz on Sunday, July 20, Williams noted how the media treat Vargas as a celebrity and insisted that “he is no doubt a hero to the American media and especially to the American left.” [See video below.]
National Review contributing editor Jonah Goldberg had some harsh words for the media’s lack of outrage over press restrictions detention facilities for illegal immigrants.
Goldberg appeared on the Fox News show Media Buzz on Sunday and proclaimed to be “shocked that the press isn’t protesting more the rules at these detention centers.” [See video below.]
Even critic Alessandra Stanley at The New York Times criticized NBC anchor Brian Williams for his servile interview with massive-leaker Edward Snowden in Russia.
“I miss Barbara Walters already,” she wrote, as if Barbara was the epitome of hardball interviews. “Brian Williams of NBC News did a good job of letting Edward J. Snowden say what he wanted to say. Someone a little nosier would surely have pressed the exiled National Security Agency leaker on what he held back.” Such as:
Along with hosting MSNBC's weekday PoliticsNation program, Al Sharpton plays many roles, ranging from community activist to harsh critic of his opponents, whom he regularly refers to in such emotion-charged terms as "white interlopers" and "Greek homos."
However, when Jason Mattera -- publisher of the Daily Surge website -- confronted Sharpton earlier this month and asked if he “should be banned from TV for the racist stuff you've said over the years,” the talkative politician tried to avoid admitting he ever used such epithets and then tried to dismiss one remark because it was directed at just one Jewish businessman.
On Wednesday night’s O’Reilly Factor, Howard Kurtz conceded the media are kind of allergic to covering Benghazi. But he would not agree that this “allergy” is about protecting Barack Obama. O’Reilly ticked off the media avoidance: no Benghazi e-mails coverage in the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal. “The Washington Post ran the story on page 17. Only USA Today was honest and responsible, putting the Benghazi email story on the front page.”
He added: “The network news last night didn't cover the Benghazi story. MSNBC, didn't cover it. Nor did CNN in primetime. And this morning, only the CBS Morning News [sic] mentioned the Benghazi story. That's a scandal. A scandal. That is proof the American press is dishonest. Period.” He couldn’t believe Kurtz didn’t find it political:
Recently departed CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson appeared with Howard Kurtz on Fox's Media Buzz on Sunday. Kurtz said her forthcoming book is titled “Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington.” Kurtz asked her to define those forces.
"I think any journalist who has been covering Washington for a few years would agree… that there is pressure coming to bear on journalists for just doing their job in ways that have never come to bear before." (Video below)
On Monday's Special Report, Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz ripped the media double standard on the resignation of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich.
After news surfaced that Eich supported California's Prop 8 six years ago, gay activists were furious and Eich resigned amidst a firestorm of controversy. Kurtz noted that the network evening news casts completely ignored the story last week, but probably would have "been in an uproar" had Eich been a gay rights supporter and his company conservative.
Veteran investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson resigned from CBS News after 20 years with the network, expressing frustration at being unable to get her stories on air. Following Attkisson’s resignation, the folks at Fox News’ “Media Buzz” expressed dissatisfaction at the state of journalism in America’s newsrooms and the culture of liberal bias that exists.
Appearing on the program on Sunday March 16th, the entire panel acknowledged the disturbing trend of journalists putting their politics above journalism with host Howard Kurtz observing that Attkisson felt it “was almost impossible to get these tougher pieces on the air.”
It would be easy to dismiss the attempt by the leftist groups Credo Mobilize and Forecast the Facts to prevent the Washington Post from publishing Charles Krauthammer's February 20 column ("The Myth of 'Settled Science'") as the whining of immature children who cover their ears and say "la-la, we can't hear you, and we're going to shut you up" every time they come across inconvenient facts.
Howard Kurtz takes the failed effort more seriously, and properly so, given that the petitioners are constantly trying to convince WaPo, the New York Times, and eventually the rest of the establishment press to do what the censors at the Los Angeles Times have already done: stop publishing any op-ed or letter to the editor from anyone they would consider a "climate change denier." Excerpts from Kurtz's Monday "Media Buzz" post at Fox News, plus a Fox News Special Report video showing Krauthammer brilliantly summarizing his column in 89 seconds, follow the jump.
Following Melissa Harris-Perry's smear on Mitt Romney's adopted black grandson - the third in a series of recent high-profile faux pas by MSNBC hosts - Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz asked a question Friday whose answer appears to definitively be "Yes."
"[H]as the channel developed a culture in which harsh personal attacks are encouraged, or at least tolerated?"