Howard Kurtz Dismisses Media Bias as Cause of Edwards Embargo, Citing Media's Puprorted "Pouncing" on Clinton Story as Evidence of Non-Bias

It's sort of funny to read liberals all swearing to a man that liberal bias had nothing to do with this. They're willing to admit all sorts of journalistic sins, except, of course, the one of which they're most guilty.

But the real headline is Kurtz' convenient misremembering of the Lewinsky affair. Kaus quoting and commenting--

[KURTZ:] I don't think the party favoritism charge holds up. Yes, the media went hard after two Republican senators, Larry Craig (who pleaded guilty in that bathroom incident) and David Vitter (who admitted calling an escort service). But they also pounced on New York's Democratic then-governor, Eliot Spitzer (whose taste in prostitutes was revealed by the New York Times), and, famously, Bill Clinton (whose Monica Lewinsky mess was disclosed by The Post and hotly pursued by Newsweek). [E.A.]

[KAUS:] And here I'd thought Michael Isikoff's original Lewinsky story was withheld by Newsweek--making it an odd data point for someone arguing that the mainstream media "pounced" on a Democrat. ... The Lewinsky scandal took off only after Matt Drudge reported that Isikoff's story wasn't being published.

It's sort of shocking that Kurtz could either forget or deliberately misrepresent the history of that reportage -- the Drudge Report's most famous IMPACTING HARD on the spiked-by-the-MSM Isikoff story launched the web as a news channel, for God's sakes.

If Ann Coulter (I presume) hadn't leaked that to Drudge, would the MSM ever have reported it? Almost certainly... when Ken Starr publicly announced his investigation, or released his report. Kurtz insistence that the media "pounced" on the Clinton story isn't merely utterly wrong -- the true account of the Clinton situation actually tends to prove the media is protective of its precious Democratic politicians.

Kurtz' "evidence" in fact proves the MSM will not report on Democratic sexual scandals... until they're left with no other choice whatsoever.

posted by Ace at 01:59 PM

| Access Comments