Howard Kurtz Attacks "The Left," Shows He Still Doesn't Get It

An open letter to Howard Kurtz:

I wanted to respond to your column from Friday, "Thunder on the Left." You're generally considered one of the country's most influential media critics, and yet, your column Friday showed that you're still not getting it.

You dismissed the concerns of media critics on the left in the most condescending way possible - the right, you implied, has a longstanding, valid complaint. Their concern, you said, was "Why can't we get an even break?" You presented this as fait accompli, without a shred of evidence. And on the other hand, you presented media critics on the left as just whiny; our concern, you said, was "Why aren't you on our side?"

But you know what, Mr. Kurtz? I'm not upset because you're not "on my side." I'm upset because I believe you failed your readers. You say that "as much anger toward the media on the left these days as there has always been on the right ... Trust me when I say that many liberals are really ticked off at the MSM, even though the nature of their criticism is very different from their rivals on the right."

You failed your readers here, I believe, by using a faulty standard of balance, claiming to see an equivalence where, plainly, none exists.

You say it is only a few extremists who have "said that journalists should be tried, convicted, hung, shot and otherwise disrespected for spilling national security secrets." That is technically true. But it's irrelevant, and it's an intellectually dishonest argument.

The woman who said her only regret about the Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people, was that it didn't target the New York Times isn't some lone nutcase talking to herself on the street. She's Ann Coulter, a bestselling author, one of the right's most influential columnists, a frequent guest on nearly every major network and a featured speaker at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference.

The man who has been one of the main proponents of the push to try journalists isn't a man on a soapbox in Washington Square Park. He's John Hinderaker, a frequent guest on your CNN show, Reliable Sources, and he's used your show to call for prosecution of journalists.

The man who actually supported "a call to the blogosphere to begin finding and publicly listing the addresses of all New York Times reporters and editors. Posting pictures of their residences, along with details of any security measures in place to protect the properties and their owners (such as location of security cameras and on-site security details) should also be published" was David Horowitz, another prominent conservative.

You, of course, should know all this. You almost certainly do.

Speaking of things you should know, I have another complaint about your column from Friday. In your column, when talking about media reaction to President Bush's speech at the NAACP, you quoted Michelle Malkin.

That, frankly, has me seeing red.

See, Mr. Kurtz, I'm not upset that you quoted someone who's not "on my side." I'm upset because you didn't do your job.

I'm upset that you didn't do the basic research necessary to know that the person you quoted as a credible expert on the subject of what the president should say to the nation's foremost African-American advocacy group makes no secret of her affiliation with VDARE, a known hate group.

I'm upset that you added to the credibility of someone who makes no secret of her affiliation with a group that lauds writers who claim that the average African American's IQ is 20 points below the IQ of the average European and that average sub-Saharan African is mentally retarded, and whose founder has written that "everyone knows that blacks are dangerous".

I'm upset that, due to your failure to do even basic journalistic due diligence, these people, whose mission is to take the ideology of the Ku Klux Klan out of its robes and away from its crossburnings and make it credible through fronts like Malkin, have gotten one step closer to their goal.

You think I'm upset because you're not "on our side?" Don't patronize me. Don't patronize your readers.

Do you get it now?

This post originally appeared on my new blog for the online magazine Dragonfire. You can check out the blog at http://dfiremedia.org.