Crossposted at unbossed
Today Howard Kurtz addresses the issue of blog criticism of the Media:
The rise of the blogosphere remains one of the most exciting communications developments in decades, giving ordinary folks the chance to bite back at a media establishment widely viewed as arrogant. It's little surprise that mainstream media types don't like being questioned, challenged and chided by critics typing from their basements and bedrooms.
But the increasingly caustic nature of some online criticism is prompting many journalists to complain that their honesty and motivation are being trashed along with their work.
Now, I have levelled a great deal of criticism at the Media, particularly at Mr. Kurtz himself. But not knowing if Mr. Kurtz is honest or what motivations he might have, I stick to his work - to wit, I attack his competence. For Mr. Kurtz and the Media to now use the "they're mean" dodge to avoid addressing the substance of our complaints it simply typical of their unfounded arrogance.
More on the flip.
To find my latest criticisms, you need only read my front page posts at dailykos. You will see that I concentrate on the great credence Kurtz gives to the unfounded and irresponsible speculation of the most hate filled extreme Right Wing blog around - that's right, Time's Blog of the Year Powerline. And Kurtz holds Powerline up as the model of what blog criticism should be:
John Hinderaker, the conservative Powerline blogger who hammered away at the reporting on the memo, said it was clear "that we were guessing or drawing an inference or expressing an opinion. I questioned whether there was a single Republican staffer dumb enough to have written that memo. Turns out there was. So I was wrong."
He says the mainstream media have a "liberal tilt" and that "when I criticize a news story or a particular journalist . . . I don't think I tend to personalize it."
In the first paragraph, Hinderaker is flat out lying (also in the second paragraph, 'Jimmy Carter is a traitor' says Powerline). Powerline flatly stated the memo was a fake, created by Democrats as a dirty trick. Howard Kurtz PRINTED these slanderous false accusations. Hinderaker LIES to Kurtz, and Kurtz lets him say it unchallenged when he knows it is a lie.
That is flat out incompetent. Kurtz, I don't know if you are honest or have ulterior motives. I don't challenge you on that score. I call you an incompetent. And you continue to prove it, column after column.
Finally, as always, the last word to atrios:
One could waste an entire lifetime talking about what's wrong with Ho Howie's latest. I'll just start and end by pointing out that a column decrying the caustic nature of "online criticism" is a little silly given that it's coming from the man who was going to have Assrocket, who led a rather caustic and bullshit campaign against one of Kurtz's own reporters, on his CNN show had the pope not died..."