kurtz, howard
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mma tag
https://www.mediamatters.org/howard-kurtz
Howard Kurtz hosts the weekly Fox News show MediaBuzz, where he criticizes media reporting and outlets, but devotes the bare minimum to covering Fox’s own scandals. He previously hosted a similar show atCNN called Reliable Sources, and before that had a Washington Post column where he also criticized media.
mma
11/13/25
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an 10 24
Fox News host Howard Kurtz insists General John Kelly saying Donald Trump told him he wanted “Hitler’s generals” may be a “gift from the gods” for the Harris presidential campaign, but it won’t change many votes because it was said in private. Kurtz also claimed that because Trump survived two assassination attempts his supporters are not about to be “peeled off,” and it’s all just “noise at this point to them.”
After praising Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, General John Kelly, as a “highly respected, um, uh four star who lost a son in Afghanistan,” Kurtz Thursday afternoon told Fox News host Martha McCallum, “I don’t believe that [Kelly] is making things up and nobody can really know what the private conversations may have been.”
“However, at the same time,” Kurtz continued, “Trump may have just been letting off steam about the loyalty he wanted from his generals compared to what he thought about Hitler’s generals, and I think that it is obviously not something that was uh, made for public consumption.”
READ MORE: ‘Not Going Down That Road’: Fox Host Shuts Down Guest as Soon as He Says ‘John Kelly’
Kurtz suggested that because there “was not an effort, uh, to say anything publicly” about wanting Hitler’s generals, those “accusations are not gonna move ten votes.”
Kelly this week in interviews has said his former boss, Donald Trump, meets the “definition of a ‘fascist.’” The Associated Press also reported: “Trump suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ‘did some good things.’”
“In his interview with The Atlantic,” The AP reported, “Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing ‘German generals,’ Kelly would ask if he meant ‘Bismarck’s generals,’ referring to Otto von Bismarck, the former chancellor of the German Reich who oversaw the unification of Germany. ‘Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,’ Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’”
McCallum suggested to Kurtz that the accusations from General Kelly were “obviously a lot of stuff being uh thrown at the wall here,” but asked also if this could be part of the “so-called October surprises that can sometimes impact elections just 12 days out?”
McCallum stressed that others had claimed Kelly was wrong, and “that they were never said.”
Kurtz did stress he does see Kelly “as a grandstander,” but rather, “concerned and upset.”
READ MORE: ‘Shameful’: Naval Academy Cancels Authoritarianism Lecture After ‘MAGA Pressure’
McCallum insisted that as far as the Kelly accusations are concerned, “it speaks to me to the tolerance that people have for the level of story that can rock a presidential election.”
“I mean, we all remember Access Hollywood,” the 2016 October surprise where Donald Trump was caught on tape making now infamous comments about grabbing women by their genitals and how he kisses women with out asking because “when you’re a star they let you do it.”
Kurtz also reassured Fox viewers that many of these “are not new allegations, and I think a lot of people, especially Trump supporters, especially after two assassination attempts have failed, are not gonna be peeled off, uh, by this back and forth. It sounds like noise at this point to them.”
Watch a short clip of the interview below or at this link.
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Featured
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Fox's Howard Kurtz claims “the media establishment was debating President Trump” by fact-checking lies during his border wall speech
01/09/19 1:19 PM EST
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Fox’s Kurtz Pushes Fake Clinton Quote That A Different Fox Host Already Apologized For Airing
10/09/16 1:19 PM EDT
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Fox’s Howard Kurtz Carries Roger Ailes’ Water In Report On Sexual Harassment Allegations
07/07/16 1:28 PM EDT
The Latest
Screengrab of Fox News.
Fox buries its massive Dominion payout
04/19/23 12:48 PM EDT
Host Howard Kurtz uses First Amendment argument to defend Fox News' lies about Dominion and election fraud
03/12/23 2:04 PM EDT
chyron reads, "POLITICS AND MEDIA CONNECT VIA WHITE HOUSE"
Fox News’ Howard Kurtz criticizes Joe Biden for hiring people who have appeared on cable news
11/24/20 7:53 PM EST
screen grab
Fox News whines at any criticism of Trump’s behaviors leading up to COVID-19 diagnosis
10/05/20 1:09 PM EDT
an image of newspapers on a pink background
The myth of an objective press benefits the powerful at the expense of the people
06/17/20 11:10 AM EDT
sanrda-smith-howard-kurtz-van-gordon-sauter-05-26-2020.jpg
Fox News promotes column on media bias by former head of Fox News, forgets to mention that fact
05/26/20 4:40 PM EDT
Stephanie Grisham MediaBuzz 3/22/20
Fox News interrupted Gov. Cuomo's coronavirus press conference for Stephanie Grisham to complain about how the media covers Trump
03/22/20 12:47 PM EDT
Sean Spicer on screen right speaking to Howard Kurtz on screen left, under a chyron reading "Trump rips new Kavanaugh claim, book alleges second exposure incident at party"
On Fox News, Sean Spicer claims that no one on the left is outraged over the New York Times' horrible tweet about Kavanaugh
09/15/19 1:58 PM EDT
Ben DOmenech speaking above a chyron that reads: "Trump rips new Kavanaugh claim, book alleges second exposure incident at party."
Fox News panelist on new Kavanaugh reporting: “This is so irresponsible on the part of the Times”
09/15/19 1:21 PM EDT
Fox News attacks the media for covering Trump's repeated lies about Alabama and Hurricane Dorian
Fox News' Howard Kurtz attacks the media for covering Trump's repeated lies about Alabama and Hurricane Dorian
09/05/19 7:17 PM EDT
cnn-rs-20120513-kurtzaccuracyromneybullying.flv
Kurtz: “The Accuracy” Of Wash. Post's Romney Bullying Story “Is Not In Doubt”
05/13/12 1:40 PM EDT
Kurtz on “Blood Libel”: Palin “Could Not Have Come Up With A More Inflammatory Phrase”
01/12/11 12:22 PM EST
Pagination
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Fox News host misleads on Trump, the GOP, and IVF
No, Fox News, Donald Trump is not a “leading advocate” of IVF
Special ProgramsAbortion Rights & Reproductive Health
Written by Helena Hind
Published 09/12/24 MMA
Following Donald Trump’s performance in the September 10 presidential debate — which observers seem to agree he lost — a Fox News host implausibly claimed that Trump is a “leading advocate” of in vitro fertilization, despite his party’s long-standing support for policies that would put the treatment in the crosshairs.
On the September 11 edition of The Story with Martha MacCallum, Fox host Howard Kurtz laid into ABC’s debate moderators for supposedly failing to fact-check Vice President Kamala Harris’ claim that families have been denied IVF treatments since the 2022 Dobbs decision threw reproductive care into chaos.
The GOP’s push for “fetal personhood” laws has indeed imperiled access to IVF — most notably in February, when the Alabama Supreme court ruled that frozen embryos are legally children, causing some providers to halt treatments and prompting loud backlash.
:{Video
CitationFrom the September 11, 2024, edition of Fox News' The Story with Martha MacCallum
Kurtz retorted, “Actually, Trump has been a leading advocate of IVF treatments, even saying they should be free.”
Fox News has buried anti-IVF stories unfavorable to Republicans before. In June, the pro-Trump network aired only one segment about the Southern Baptist Convention’s passage of a resolution stating that “embryos are human beings from the moment of fertilization.” Contributor Kellyanne Conway claimed the vote failed to prove that Republicans want IVF on the chopping block — right before Senate Republicans voted to kill a bill that would have guaranteed IVF access nationwide.
Several Project 2025 partner organizations — including the Heritage Foundation, which called the Alabama Supreme Court ruling an “unqualified victory” even after Trump tried to disavow it — have also publicly criticized IVF, with some opponents likening the procedure to eugenics.
Additionally, after the GOP’s& Trump-approved 2024 platform was revealed in July, Project 2025 partners and anti-abortion groups claimed that the platform’s language signals support for fetal personhood, threatening both IVF and hormonal birth control.
In August, Trump tried to further distance himself from the right-wing anti-IVF crusade by claiming he would mandate free IVF coverage if reelected, which many of his strongest supporters in Congress publicly denounced, in part due to ideology and in part due to costs.
Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell recently pointed out how transparently ridiculous Trump's approach is:
In response to all this bad PR, Trump did what he often does: He made a promise he has no intention of carrying out. If reelected, he pledged, he’d “mandate” fertility-care coverage for all Americans.
It can be futile to spend more time analyzing a Trump “proposal” than Trump himself has spent thinking about it. He offered no eligibility criteria, no budget score, none of the supportive analysis a political campaign would normally be expected to release. Trump couldn’t even identify who would provide this (very expensive) coverage. Would it be the government or private insurers under a mandate? Yeah, sure, one of those options, he said.
Even so, we can assess how Trump’s proclamation fits in with his prior record as president. The answer: It doesn’t.
An insurance mandate for fertility coverage would effectively be an expansion of essential health benefits. These are the categories of services, set nationwide by Obamacare, that insurance plans are legally mandated to cover, such as prescription drugs, ambulatory services, maternity care and substance-abuse treatment.
But as president, Trump repeatedly tried to weaken or eliminate the very existence of such mandates.
A September 12 Politico piece explores the dynamic; as it notes, Trump's plan would require congressional approval. And even then, it's unclear if Trump-stacked courts would allow it to proceed. One anti-IVF opponent invoked the legal battles of the right against contraception, telling Politico, "You’re going to require faith-based organizations to carry insurance that covers IVF against their conscience?”
Trump’s supposed support of guaranteeing access to IVF is hard to take at face value when his campaign promotes the support of pundits like Daily Wire host Michael Knowles, who has called IVF a “crime,” “evil,” and “immoral,” and suggested that providers be prosecuted.
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https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/trump-expected-splashy-wall-street-journal-coverage-of-hunter-bidens-emails-he-was-disappointed/
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an 1020
...[reporter] jenkins explained that the news organization had been provided documents by Tony Bobulinski, Hunter Biden's former business partner.
"You're talking about a business venture with the Chinese energy company in 2017 at a time when Joe Biden was not vice president," Jenkins explained. "But Fox's review of Bobulinski's documents, which were given to us, found no role for Joe Biden in that business venture."
"There's another former business partner who says he knows of no involvement by Joe Biden," Fox News host Howard Kurtz added. "The Wall Street Journal says it also reviewed the text messages and emails, saying, they don't show either Hunter Biden or James Biden — the brother — discussing a role for Joe Biden."
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https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/trump-expected-splashy-wall-street-journal-coverage-of-hunter-bidens-emails-he-was-disappointed/
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think-again-the-neverending-scandal-of-howard-kurtz-and-the-washington-post
11 2009
Back in mid-September, I received an e-mail from The Washington Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander asking me to give him a call about some of the issues I’ve been raising here and elsewhere about Howard Kurtz’s myriad conflicts of interest for a column Alexander planned to write. When I returned his call, however, he had already changed his mind—as is his right, of course—and decided to criticize his newspaper for not paying more attention to the kinds of issues raised by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, particularly the ACORN story.
Alexander and I did not end up speaking but he did decide to address himself to Kurtz last week. He did so in the context of first raising another alleged conflict of interest—the fact that Post reporter Juliet Eilperin covers climate change while being married to a part-time Center for American Progress Senior Fellow who also works on the issue. Alexander did not point to any actual examples where her coverage might have been compromised. He just wondered if the marriage of a reporter and a part-time CAP Senior Fellow, interested in the same things, is a conflict all by itself. (Disclosure: I do not recall ever having met either party involved, and I take no position on whether or not it constitutes a conflict.)
What I found most interesting about this context for a discussion of Kurtz, however, is the fact that Alexander never mentions that Kurtz is a married spouse with political, financial, and ideological interests in his wife’s work. I mean this literally. Kurtz is married to former Republican political consultant, Sheri Annis. He frequently writes about her former and potential clients. And yet one rarely if ever sees any disclosure. (On one occasion, on CNN, Kurtz when so far as to interview and plug an author as a “remarkable woman” who was actually paying his wife—through a cutout—to promote the author’s book. He added, “I should mention that my wife has done some promotion work for Kim Dozier’s book.”)
Alexander devotes himself instead to the fact Kurtz’s job as the paid host of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” “presents an inescapable conflict that is at odds with Post rules. They state that a reporter or editor ‘cannot accept payment from any person, company, or organization that he or she covers.’ There can be exceptions for some groups, such as broadcast organizations, ‘unless the reporter or editor is involved in coverage of them.’”
Kurtz operates on the basis of a waver given to him by previous PostExecutive Editor Len Downie, which allows him to ignore this explicit rule. I asked Downie about this once, and he took refuge in the argument that all media reporters are engaged in various conflicts of interest, and the best one could hope for is full disclosure. Kurtz defends himself by claiming to be a tough-minded, no-nonsense reporter who has nothing to hide. Alexander quotes him saying “My track record makes clear that I’ve been as aggressive toward CNN—and The Washington Post, for that matter—as I would be if I didn’t host a weekly program there.” The ombudsman adds that Kurtz discloses his CNN affiliation at the end of his columns and relevant news stories for The Post. And he’s identified with The Post on “Reliable Sources.” Alexander decides just to leave it at that.
While I sadly admire Alexander’s work sometimes—and sometimes not—I can’t help but feel that he purposely punted this time, deciding for some reason to allow Kurtz’s defense to stand even though he knows it to be false.
Leave aside the many, many examples of Kurtz’s conflict corrupting his coverage pointed out by Slate’s Mickey Kaus here, here, here, here, and here, or by Bill Wyman here and here, let’s just discuss those that have occurred since June 17 of this year, when Alexander cited a letter I wrote him in a blog item noting that Kurtz had failed to mention his paycheck from CNN when offering up a rather shocking defense of CNN’s noncoverage of the Iranian elections.
Then, as always, Kurtz called it an oversight and promised not to let it happen again. But of course it did, many times over. I wrote that up here and here. And more significantly, just a couple of weeks after Kurtz promised his ombudsman to try to do better, the Media Matters blog County Fair noted the following:
“Kurtz was slow to address what was a raging media story; when he finally did, he omitted any mention of CNN president Jonathan Klein’s endorsement of Dobbs’ Birther conspiracy theories. To this day, Kurtz has still never mentioned Klein’s defense of Dobbs—a defense which is not only inconsistent with Kurtz’s own criticism of the Birther nonsense, but is inaccurate, as well.
"That’s a huge, glaring, undeniable conflict of interest, and one well worth the attention of the Post ombudsman. But here’s something else: When Kurtz has written about Dobbs and CNN in recent weeks, he has failed to disclose his ties to CNN.
"In a July 22 Media Notes column, Kurtz mentioned Dobbs in a section on birthers—but Kurtz didn’t disclose his financial relationship with CNN.
"In an August 3 Media Notes column, Kurtz mentioned Dobbs in a section on birthers—but Kurtz didn’t disclose his financial relationship with CNN.
"In an August 3 ‘Media Backtalk’ online discussion, Kurtz answered two questions that referenced CNN and three that referenced Dobbs. But Kurtz never disclosed his financial relationship with CNN."
And just recently a correspondent sent me a note pointing out that Kurtz had actually changed his identification on one Post column, after it was printed, to remove the word “paid” before the words “contributor to CNN” to perhaps imply that there is no conflict at all. After all, if no money is changing hands, then what’s the big deal?
What’s more, the problem is much larger than simply Kurtz’s dishonesty about his relationship with CNN (and his lack of disclosure in the Post). As the journalism professor Edward Wasserman writes in The Miami Herald in a column critical of Kurtz, “What makes conflicts of interest so insidious is that their effect may be impossible to catalogue. They make themselves felt not in clear-cut favoritism but through impaired judgment: The stories that are skipped, or the elements of stories that are done that are omitted or downplayed.”
In recent weeks, Columbia Journalism Review critic Michael Massing has noted, in a recent column called “Howard Kurtz: Missing in Action?” that Kurtz cannot bring himself to criticize the outrageous lies told by Fox News anchors in their war with the White House—indeed, cannot even accept the notion that there is anything funny going on at Fox at all.
Kurtz’s view, he says, “is that they control no votes, no factions, no military units, but they do have powerful microphones. Whatever influence wielded by Beck and Hannity or Limbaugh (or by commentators on the other side) stems from their ideas and their talents as infotainers. If they peddle misinformation and exaggerations, that can be neutralized by others in the media marketplace.”
But Massing quite properly retorts: “Gee, Howard, I would have thought that the main job of a media reporter would be to expose the misinformation and exaggerations peddled by news organizations. Why cede the job to the ‘media marketplace’ (whatever that is)? I would expect The Washington Post to be one place we could look to for a thoughtful, well-researched analysis of the performance of a network like Fox.” Massing then goes on to praise the comedian Jon Stewart for giving CNN’s competitors and CNN itself the kind of coverage that is literally unimaginable from this tough-talking reporter.
And if you think that’s an isolated incident, what about this one recently discussed in a blog post by Media Matters’ Jamison Foser:
“Kurtz spent a good chunk of the summer writing about media coverage of the right-wing birther conspiracy theories, of which he was critical. The most prominent media figure who regularly hyped those conspiracy theories was CNN’s Lou Dobbs. To his credit, Kurtz occasionally criticized Dobbs. And when CNN president Jonathan Klein appeared to rebuke Dobbs, sending out a memo to CNN staff saying the story was dead, Kurtz mentioned that on his CNN program. But when Klein changed his mind and defended Dobbs’ coverage as ‘legitimate’ and slammed Dobbs’ critics as ‘partisans,’ Kurtz kept quiet.
"Kurtz, remember, was one of those Dobbs critics; but he never said a word about Klein’s flip. He didn’t even report Klein’s comments. For several weeks over the summer, the birther conspiracy theories were the biggest media story out there. And the president of the nation’s oldest cable news channel was defending a star anchor’s relentless hyping of those conspiracy theories. And Howard Kurtz thought that anchor’s coverage was “ludicrous.”
"But Kurtz kept his mouth shut about Klein. Didn’t say anything, didn’t write anything. Klein, of course, signs Kurtz’s CNN paychecks.
"Even more incredibly, Kurtz slammed CNN competitors like MSNBC for supposedly keeping the story alive. The MSNBC reporters to whom Kurtz was referring were debunking the birther nonsense. Kurtz’s boss at CNN was defending Lou Dobbs’ promotion of those theories as “legitimate.” And yet Kurtz criticized CNN rival MSNBC, while giving Klein a pass. (More here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
"Is it even possible not to think that the fact Klein is Kurtz’s boss had a little something to do with that?"
The fact is Howard Kurtz is compromised by his CNN paycheck every time he mentions either the network or one of its competitors, and often times when he does not. Cable coverage in this country is a scandal and the most powerful and influential media critic in the business does not think it’s worth examining.
The Washington Post’s credibility as an organization is currently at low ebb. Not only did its relatively new and inexperienced publisher, Katherine Weymouth, try to trade on the good name of its reporters by selling access to fat cats through a series of proposed sponsored salons—costing between $25,000 and $250,000 a pop—but its new and extremely experienced executive editor, Marcus Brauchli, misled reporters when he claimed that he did not know that these salons were to be off the record. (Kurtz was beaten on this story by Politico and on the false claim by Brauchli by *The New York Times*.) It employs a media critic whose every word is compromised by the paycheck he received from CNN and who refuses to disclose that relationship when he finds it inconvenient. And it now has an ombudsman who would prefer not to look too deeply into that conflict for reasons he, too, did not explain.
Is it any wonder that mainstream media institutions like The Washington Post continue to lose not only the dollars but also the trust of their readers? If we can’t trust them to be honest about themselves, then why should we trust them about our president? And does anyone at the Post care enough about its reputation to finally address this situation and restore some confidence in the paper’s willingness to stand by its own rules of ethics?
Eric Alterman is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College. He is also a Nation columnist and a professor of journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His seventh book, Why We’re Liberals: A Handbook for Restoring America’s Most Important Ideals, was recently published in paperback. He occasionally blogs at http://www.thenation.com/blogs/altercation and is a regular contributor to The Daily Beast. He does not recall ever having met Howard Kurtz, though they may have talked on the phone.
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9 24
Howard Alan Kurtz (/kɜːrts/; born August 1, 1953) is an American journalist and author and host of Media Buzz on Fox News.
He is the former media writer for The Washington Post and the former Washington bureau chief for The Daily Beast. He has written five books about the media. Kurtz left CNN and joined Fox News in 2013.
Early life and education
Kurtz was born to a Jewish family[2] in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, the son of Marcia, a homemaker, and Leonard Kurtz, a clothing executive.[3] He is a 1970 graduate of Sheepshead Bay High School[4] and the University at Buffalo (State University of New York). In college he worked on a student newspaper, the Spectrum, becoming the editor his senior year.[3] Kurtz earned a B. A. (psychology and English) in 1974. He then attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Career
After college, Kurtz went to work for the Record in New Jersey.[3] He moved to Washington D.C. to work as a reporter for syndicated columnist Jack Anderson.[3] Kurtz left Anderson to join The Washington Star, an afternoon paper. When the newspaper closed in 1981, Kurtz was hired at The Washington Post by Bob Woodward, then the Metro editor. Kurtz has also written for The New Republic, The Washington Monthly, and New York magazine.
The Washington Post
Kurtz joined the staff of The Washington Post in 1981 and left in 2010 (29 years). He served there as a national affairs correspondent, New York bureau chief and deputy national editor.[5] Kurtz covered the news media between 1990 and 2010 for The Washington Post.[6][7]
Reliable Sources on CNN
From 1998 until 2013, Kurtz served as host of the weekly CNN program Reliable Sources, a cable television program that explores the standards, performance and biases of the media.[8] Kurtz led the scrutinizing of the media's fairness and objectivity by questioning journalists of top news organizations, including those at CNN.[9] The show premiered in 1992 when it originated as a one-hour special to discuss the media's coverage of the Persian Gulf War.[10]
The Daily Beast
:{In October 2010, Kurtz announced he was moving to the online publication The Daily Beast.[11] He served as the Washington bureau chief for the website, writing on media and politics until 2013.[12][13] His salary at The Daily Beast was reported to be $600,000 a year.[14] On May 2, 2013, the site's editor-in-chief Tina Brown announced that Kurtz and The Daily Beast had "parted company".[15] It occurred in the aftermath of a controversy in which Kurtz incorrectly accused NBA player Jason Collins of failing to acknowledge a former heterosexual engagement when he came out as a homosexual, but Kurtz stated the parting was mutual and "in the works for some time".[16][17][18]
Sources inside the Daily Beast newsroom have stated that Kurtz's departure became inevitable once he began writing for and promoting a lesser-known media website called Daily Download.[19][20] Kurtz was previously the subject of controversy when Nancy Pelosi denied making a statement Kurtz attributed to her,[21] and a quote Kurtz attributed to Darrell Issa was reported to have actually been made by his spokesperson.[22] Brown later said on Twitter she fired Kurtz for "serial inaccuracy".[23]}:
Fox News
On June 20, 2013, Kurtz left CNN to join Fox News Channel to host a weekend media program and write a column for FoxNews.com.[24] Kurtz's Media Buzz replaced the Fox News Watch program hosted by Jon Scott.
Books
Media Circus: The Trouble with America's Newspapers (1993, ISBN 0-8129-2022-8) identifies problems afflicting U.S. newspapers and offers suggestions. Among the issues identified are timid leadership, a spreading tabloid approach to news with a growing focus on celebrities and personal scandal, poor coverage of racial issues and the Persian Gulf war, increasing bureaucracy and a pasteurization of the news.[25][26]
Hot Air: All Talk, All the Time (1997, ISBN 0-8129-2624-2) describes failings of the talk-show and political talk-show format even as it had been rapidly proliferating on television and radio. Some problems he identifies include superficiality, lies, hysteria, lack of preparation, sensationalism and conflicts of interest.[27]
Spin Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine (1998, ISBN 0-684-85231-4) describes various techniques used by the Clinton White House to put spin on the controversies and scandals surrounding the Clintons and to refocus the attention of the media on topics other than non-issues focused on by the media.[28][29]
The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media, and Manipulation (2000, ISBN 0-684-86879-2) addresses the growing public fascination with stock market trading as fueled by cable television shows and internet sites providing platforms to pundits, stock touts and brokerage firm stock analysts. The potential for manipulation of the media and the public by stock market insiders is discussed.[30][31]
Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War (2007, ISBN 0-7432-9982-5) chronicles the struggles at TV networks ABC, NBC and CBS to enhance the stature, credibility and audience draw of their anchors of the evening network news programs. The book's focus is on ABC's Charles Gibson, CBS's Katie Couric and NBC's Brian Williams.[32][33]
Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press, And The War Over The Truth, which was released in January 2018, discussed Donald Trump's fights with the news media during the first year of his presidency.[34][35][36] The book argues that the media unfairly treated President Trump. According to a review by Jonathan Chait in New York magazine, "To Kurtz ... the 'massive imbalance' between Trump's coverage and coverage of other presidents can only be explained by media bias. He treats this premise as definitionally true—not defending it outright, but simply building his case as though no other explanation could even theoretically exist. And so the strange mission of his book is to analyze the hostile relationship between Trump and the mainstream news media without in any way acknowledging any background as to why."[37]
Criticism
Kurtz has publicly declined to state his political affiliation.[38] As a high-profile media critic and analyst, Kurtz's political leanings and multiple employers and possible biases have been discussed by fellow media critics and pundits. Both liberal and conservative viewpoints have been observed in his writing.[3] Journalist Mickey Kaus, reporting on and partially quoting from a letter by journalist Charles Kaiser in The New Republic, wrote that Kurtz "has large, non-technical conflicts of interest, since he free-lances and takes money 'from the people he writes about, from Time Warner to Condé Nast.'... One seemingly conflicting interest is Kurtz co-hosting CNN's Reliable Sources, in which he obtains monetary supplements as well as national renown."[39]
:{Kurtz has received criticism for his apparent support of syndicated radio host Don Imus. Former Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly has called out Kurtz for criticizing Fox News. The network covered a story about the United States Justice Department regarding its prosecution of members of the New Black Panther Party for accusations of voter intimidation during the 2008 United States Presidential Election. O'Reilly criticized network news media outlets, particularly Bob Schieffer of the CBS News talk show Face the Nation, for not asking Attorney General Eric Holder about the story.
When Kurtz discussed the topic on Reliable Sources, he mentioned that Fox News was "pushing" the story. O'Reilly criticized Kurtz's description that Fox pushed the story and said that Kurtz's newspaper, The Washington Post, had its own ombudsman Andrew Alexander say that it regretted not pursuing the story earlier due to newsworthiness.[40]}:
KURTZ: I think the argument that I've heard Olbermann make in the past about Fox News – it's not an argument that I embrace – is that, because it poses as a news organization and puts out dangerous misinformation is a cheerleader for the Bush administration, that it's misinforming our society. But you know what? They're entitled to do that.[41]
Kurtz's 2008 Reliable Sources interview of Kimberly Dozier, a CBS reporter wounded in Iraq, was criticized by several members of the media because Kurtz's wife had been paid as a publicist for Dozier's memoir. During the interview, Kurtz praised Dozier and read passages of her book.[42]
Personal life
Kurtz married Sheri Annis in May 2003. Annis, a media consultant and political commentator, served as campaign spokesperson for Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and has worked on various conservative political initiatives, including California's Proposition 227 and Proposition 209.[43]
References
- "UBT: Alumni Profiles". buffalo.edu. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- Kurtz, Howard (April 16, 2007). "A Sorry Story, With Apology Yet to Come". The Washington Post. ...any more than I believe he was anti-Semitic because he once made tasteless cracks about my being Jewish.
- ^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "See Howie Kurtz Run by Garrett M. Graff, July 1, 2005, Washingtonian.com
- Sheepshead Bay High School yearbook, 1970
- The Fortune Tellers by Howard Kurtz author biography (Google Books)
- "CNN TV - Anchors/Reporters:Howard Kurtz". Archived from the original on July 19, 2006.
- "HowardKurtz on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- "Journalist, Cover Thyself" by Katharine Q. Seelye, New York Times, November 21, 2005
- CNN bio Archived 2006-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
- CNN website Reliable Sources webpage
- Brown, Tina (5 October 2010). "Howard Kurtz Joins The Daily Beast". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 6 October 2010.
- Peters, Jeremy (5 October 2010). "Longtime Washington Post Writer Heads to The Daily Beast". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
- "Media writer Howard Kurtz leaves The Washington Post". The Spy Report. Media Spy. 6 October 2010. Archived from the original on 13 October 2010. Retrieved 6 October 2010.
- Blodget, Henry (2011-01-19) THE GOLDEN AGE OF NEWS: Mainstream Media Staffers Agog At Huge Salaries Huffpo And Daily Beast Are Paying Big-Name Stars, Business Insider
- "Tina Brown on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- Dylan Byers (2 May 2013). "Daily Beast drops Howard Kurtz". POLITICO. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- Shapiro, Rebecca (2 May 2013). "Howard Kurtz, Daily Beast Part Ways". Huffington Post.
- "Erik Wemple". The Washington Post.
- Calderone, Michael (1 May 2013). "Howard Kurtz's Connection To Little-Known Website Raises Questions". Huffington Post.
- Dylan Byers and Katie Glueck. "The Howard Kurtz saga". POLITICO. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- "The Case Of The Disappearing Pelosi Quote". The Atlantic.
- "How the Howard Kurtz/Darrell Issa Error Happened". Slate.
- Kludt, Tom (5 August 2013). "Talking Points Memo".
- Weinger, Mackenzie (20 June 2013). "Howard Kurtz leaves CNN for Fox". Politico. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- Amazon.com listing and excerpted reviews
- Media Circus review by Frye Gaillard, September, 1993, The Progressive
- Amazon.com listing - summary and excerpts from reviews
- Amazon.com listing with excerpted reviews
- Fischer, Raymond L. (September 1998). ["Spin Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine [Book review]"](https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Spin+Cycle%3a+Inside+the+Clinton+Propaganda+Machine.-a021114552). USA Today.
- Amazon.com listing - summary and excerpts of reviews
- *New York Times* book review by Richard Bernstein, September 11, 2000
- Kurtz, Howard (2007-10-09). Reality Show: Howard Kurtz: 9780743299824: Amazon.com: Books. Free Press. ISBN 978-0743299824.
- "Weighing Anchors" review by Marvin Kalb, Washington Post, October 21, 2007
- Parker, Ashley. "'Defiance Disorder': Another new book describes chaos in Trump's White House". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- Blake, Aaron. "This new Trump book could do even more damage than Michael Wolff's. Here's why". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- Cullen, Terence (October 20, 2017). "Trump admitted sending Spicer to argue crowd size was wrong: book". Daily News. New York. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- Chait, Jonathan. "Reporters Should Leave Trump Alone, Argues America's Worst Media Critic". Daily Intelligencer. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
- "Critiquing the Press" on washingtonpost.com
- "kaus files dot com". kausfiles.com. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- "The Media, the Black Panthers and President Obama". Fox News. 20 July 2010. Archived from the original on July 23, 2010.
- "Critiquing the Press" by Howard Kurtz, September 17, 2007. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- Steinberg, Jacques (29 May 2008). "CNN Reporter's Interview Raises Ethical Questions". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
- "Sheri Annis Biography". Fourth Estate Strategies. Archived from the original on 10 May 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Howard Kurtz.
- Profile at Fox News
- Column archive at The Daily Beast
- Kurtz's Media Notes on Washingtonpost.com (up to October, 2010 when he left the Post)
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Howard Kurtz on Charlie Rose
- Howard Kurtz at IMDb
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Fox News' Howard Kurtz attacks the media for covering Trump's repeated lies about Alabama and Hurricane Dorian
HOWARD KURTZ: It was, well, a perfect storm. A press corps always on high alert for the smallest Trump misstep and a president who seemingly can't let go of even minor mistakes and that made Sharpie-gate a distraction from a major hurricane's destruction.
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