On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 3:01 PM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote: > Well, I gave in and just used the headline from the actual piece linked > here, since it is both so obvious and apt: > http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/howard-kurtz-daily-beast-90881.html > > Howard Kurtz's relationship with the Daily Beast ended Thursday (not quite > a firing, but one senses it was a bit more than the mutually agreed upon > decision to split up in Kurtz' version), and CNN announced that his > "Reliable Sources" is under review. The instant offense appears to be his > report that Jason Collins had not revealed that he had been engaged when he > came out as the first active athlete in a male professional team sport this > week (even though Collins did reveal this, both in this original Sports > Illustrated piece and in his ABC interview), and the associated and (to me > at least) odd and inexplicable obsession that Kurtz seemed to have with > what seemed to be his suspicion that Collins was not *really* gay. It > seemed almost as if Kurtz was implying that Collins was falsely identifying > himself as gay because he thought it would improve his chances of getting > signed by a new NBA team next season. > > But several sources have reported that it was more than just this one > incident - Kurtz has over the years increasingly been seen both as > something of a joke (well, I guess that is my summary, perhaps more > objectively it could be stated that he is no longer widely assumed to be an > authoritative media reporter and critic). And probably more to the point, > he has been spread very thin, as more of his energy has been devoted to a > third project - “The Daily Download”, which has interfered with the > attention he gives both The Beast and "Unreliable Sources". As many > commentators have noted, it is unclear why Kurtz is even doing that, as it > seems redundant with his other two gigs, rather than complimentary. > > My real interest in this story is that it illustrates a case of the media > world basically getting something right (which is rare enough) - especially > when contrasted with a similar case this week, that of ESPN's Chris > Broussard. Broussard had made much more negative and (IMO) hateful and > offensive comments this week, which led to many to call for his > termination. While ESPN did issue a clarification of its own support for > Collins, it did not fire or suspend Broussard - nor should it have. He is > entitled to his opinion, however wrong headed and mean spirited it might > be. He did not inject it into his ordinary coverage of the NBA for ESPN, > but instead honestly responded to a question put to him during what was > clearly an opinion section of Outside the Lines. He did not use any violent > or inappropriate terms for gay men, nor did he say that Collins should not > be allowed to play in the NBA. He just repeated typical fundamentalist > homophobia. Kurtz on the other hand, made comments that were much more > ambiguous and less directly negative or offensive, but he A) injected it > into his coverage of the story and B) allowed it to bias his work, leading > in one or two cases to clearly inaccurate reporting. This is just the kind > of thing journalists should be fired for - and again, in Kurtz's case it is > not this once incident, he has been in a long and prolonged slide to lazy > and shoddy journalism for some time now (as documented in the linked > article). As Josh Barro of Bloomberg put it (cited in the Politico piece: > “Between Dick Morris and Howard Kurtz, we’re seeing a dangerous trend where > commentators lose their jobs for being bad at them.” >
Update: http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/howard-kurtz-status-unchanged-at-cnn_b177926 "CNN “Reliable Sources” host Howard Kurtz may not have a job at The Daily Beast anymore, but he still has his CNN hosting gig… for now. A CNN spokesperson tells THR: “There has been no status change with Howard Kurtz, he remains the host of Reliable Sources,” said a network spokesperson on Friday. “He will address this issue on the program this weekend.” We heard from a CNN source yesterday that Kurtz’s future at the network is up in the air. Since then, we have heard from others, who say that Kurtz is on a week-to-week contract with the channel.TVNewser has also confirmed that CNN has reached out to other media critics about potentially doing something for the channel over the last year or so, although so far nothing fruitful has come from those discussions." -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
