Howard Kurtz

Howard Kurtz Doubles Down: 'Important' for Media to 'Lead the Conversation' on Guns
By Matt Hadro | April 29, 2013 | 12:32 PM EDT

On Sunday's Reliable Sources, CNN's Howard Kurtz doubled down on his December column that the media needed "to be leading the conversation" on guns in the wake of Newtown. He even compared the gun debate to the conversations on civil rights and, recently, same-sex marriage. Is gun control the new civil rights movement?

Of course, Kurtz claimed objectivity although since Newtown the media have been anything but fair to gun rights advocates in the "conversation" on guns: "I would say that it's important for journalists, whether you like the phrase 'leading the conversation' or not, to push controversial issues that the politicians otherwise might prefer not to talk about."

Yet New York Times columnist Ross Douthat countered that the media is overwhelmingly one-sided when it tries to push issues into the spotlight, and pointed to the selective outrage behind the Newtown shooting versus the horror stories coming from the Gosnell trial. 

Nothing to See Here: CNN's Toobin Denies Media Bias In Gosnell Blackout
By Matt Hadro | April 15, 2013 | 12:23 PM EDT

On Friday's Anderson Cooper 360, hours after CNN finally covered the trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell for the first time in weeks, CNN's legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin scoffed at the notion of a liberal media bias responsible for the cover-up.

"Well, the people making those criticisms by and large are conservatives, who are saying the liberal media is trying to protect abortion rights by not showing this horror show. I don't buy that at all," Toobin asserted.

Howard Kurtz on Gosnell Trial Coverage: 'Conservative Media Didn't Do Much Either'
By Noel Sheppard | April 14, 2013 | 5:07 PM EDT

Many media observers were wondering if CNN's Howard Kurtz was going to expose on his Reliable Sources program Sunday the press's horrible coverage of the Kermit Gosnell murder trial.

As fate would have it, Kurtz's reporting was just as pathetic as virtually everyone else's to date giving the matter a total of 90 seconds while sharing bogus statistics including the truly preposterous claim, "The conservative media didn't do much either" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Politico's Roger Simon: 'How Good a Job Did Hillary Clinton Really Do as Secretary of State?'
By Noel Sheppard | April 7, 2013 | 5:17 PM EDT

As the media predictably gush and fawn over the thought of Hillary Clinton as president, there's something extremely obvious they've been missing.

Rather surprisingly, Roger Simon, the perilously liberal chief political columnist at Politico, asked the $64 million question on CNN's Reliable Sources Sunday, "How good a job did she really do as Secretary of State?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

CNN Panel Whitewashes Media Bias on Gay Marriage; 'In the Middle'
By Matt Hadro | April 2, 2013 | 5:20 PM EDT

Sunday's Reliable Sources was absurdly generous to the media for their coverage of the same-sex marriage debate, calling them "in the middle" and denying having seen any "rudeness" toward social conservatives.

Host Howard Kurtz teed up gay rights activist John Aravosis by asking, "Are the media waking up to the fact that this is a civil rights issue?" Meanwhile, Aravosis claimed the press is "still being objective and in the middle" on the issue while the Washington Post's "conservative" blogger Jennifer Rubin denied having seen any media "rudeness or abruptness" toward social conservatives.

WaPo's Sally Quinn: Pope Francis 'Could Possibly Have Been Involved in a Scandal'
By Noel Sheppard | March 17, 2013 | 2:57 PM EDT

Sally Quinn sure has a low opinion of the Catholic Church for someone that edits the Washington Post's "On Faith" blog.

Having claimed last week on CBS's Face the Nation that "so many priests are gay," Quinn this Sunday on CNN's Reliable Sources said the lack of media vetting and background checks of Cardinals meant Pope Francis "could possibly have been involved in a scandal" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

CNN Panel Scoffs at Press Getting 'Manipulated' by White House, But CNN Was 'Manipulated' Too
By Matt Hadro | March 11, 2013 | 6:17 PM EDT

On Sunday's Reliable Sources, the CNN panel scoffed at the media for getting "manipulated" by the White House last week into hyping Obama's meetings with the GOP as a "charm offensive." CNN's own reporting shows that it played right into those talking points.

"I love how easily the press corps is manipulated," remarked The Washington Post's Dana Milbank. "So, the President takes a few senators out to dinner at the Jefferson Hotel and has lunch with Paul Ryan, and suddenly, he's reaching out and there's all these efforts to have kumbaya. He's had two meals."

Howard Kurtz: Obama 'Works Very Hard and Doesn’t Take Many Vacations'
By Noel Sheppard | March 10, 2013 | 2:43 PM EDT

CNN's Howard Kurtz made a comment Sunday that might raise some conservative eyebrows.

In a Reliable Sources discussion about comments Fox News's Roger Ailes made in a new book about him, Kurtz said, "I think this president works very hard and doesn’t take many vacations" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Dana Milbank: Future Scholars Will Be Shocked By Number of F-bombs Dropped By This White House
By Noel Sheppard | March 10, 2013 | 1:45 PM EDT

UPDATE AT END OF POST: Ari Fleischer responds to accusation Milbank made about him in this segment.

The Washington Post's Dana Milbank made an interesting observation Sunday about the vulgarity prominent in the current presidential administration.

Appearing on CNN's Reliable Sources, Milbank said, "The number of F-bombs being dropped by this White House, scholars are going to look in the national archives in 20 or 30 years and they're going to be shocked by the language that was coming out of this place" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

CNN Pounces on Ailes Calling Obama 'Lazy;' Mostly Ignores That He Cited Obama's Words
By Matt Hadro | March 7, 2013 | 5:33 PM EST

CNN harped on the controversy over Fox News head Roger Ailes calling President Obama "lazy" and Vice President Biden "dumb as an ashtray." The network covered it on five shows on Wednesday and Thursday, but three of the shows ignored that Ailes used Obama's own words.

In making the "lazy" remark, Ailes cited a 2011 interview with Barbara Walters where Obama said that "deep down, underneath all the work that I do, I think there's a laziness in me." Erin Burnett was the only CNN anchor to promptly give that context in her report; on Thursday's Starting Point, conservative panel member Will Cain first brought it up, and co-host John Berman affirmed it.

Howard Kurtz Ridicules Media Freak Out on Sequester
By Matt Hadro | March 4, 2013 | 12:36 PM EST

CNN's Howard Kurtz mocked the media – including his own network – on Sunday's Reliable Sources for uncritically channeling government hysteria over the sequester cuts.

"[I]f the press had put in, let's say, 10 percent of the effort that was devoted to investigating, I don't know, Beyonce's lip syncing into the actual measurable effects of these budget cuts, I think we would have seen a somewhat different picture," quipped Kurtz.

Shocker: Howard Kurtz Says 'Hannity's In the Right' In Slugfest With Congressman Ellison
By Noel Sheppard | February 27, 2013 | 6:04 PM EST

As NewsBusters reported, Fox News host Sean Hannity was rudely treated by Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) Tuesday.

Rather shockingly, the Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz and Lauren Ashburn, in a video posting at the website Daily Download, said Wednesday that Hannity was "in the right" and that it was indeed Ellison that behaved poorly (video follows with transcript and commentary):