Kurtz has a front page story in today's Washington Post about Jon Stewart, entitled, "The Campaign of a Comedian: Jon Stewart's Fake Journalism Enjoys Real Political Impact"
You'd think, from the sub head, the story would be about why "The Daily Show" is more popular than the show of Kurtz's conservative political friends (who like to hire his GOP flack wife). Instead, it is basically a "how dare he (Stewart), make fun of us"
Here' the link (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55440-2004Oct22.html) and a few choice quotes:
"Says Carlson: "Jon Stewart is a talented comedian, and all of a sudden he wants to be Kathleen Hall Jamieson," the University of Pennsylvania author and media analyst.
"There are things wrong with cable shout-shows, definitely. There are things wrong with 'Crossfire.' What bothered me was the pomposity and sanctimony, the notion that we're the problem. He doesn't understand the role of shows like ours in the media food chain. Not only was he not funny, he was not interesting. Banal."
and... (Kurtz proving that Steward is a "biased comedian" and not an objective fake newscaster)
Stewart, who has called the Iraq war a mistake, is more likely than Jay Leno or David Letterman to ridicule Bush while going easy on Kerry, the Project for Excellence in Journalism found. "He's an outstanding comedian, but clearly he does comedy from the Democratic left perspective," says Republican strategist Mike Murphy. "A lot of people who watch Stewart and howl at the jokes already have their minds made up in the presidential race."
Kurtz doesn't get it. Stewart doesn't care if the commentariat likes him or hates him -- he just wants to make fun of them. Here's the best passage that Kurtz seems to not understand is actually a quote making fun of him and his stupid decision to write this story (and the editor's to place it on the front page)
"Even I'm sick of us," says Ben Karlin, the show's executive producer. But "the media beast must be fed," he added, amused that the show is being hyped by the "pack journalism" it regularly ridicules.