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• Thursday, March 1, 2007 07:34 PM

  Greg Sargent & Media Matters - Kurtz Promotes Michelle Malkin While Supposedly Disclaiming Malkinism

  http://talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/03/howard_kurtz_pi.php

  The Horse's Mouth
  A blog about the reporting of politics -- and the politics of reporting.
  By Greg Sargent
  Howard Kurtz Publicizes Malkin's Efforts To Tar Left -- Even Though He Thinks They're "Absurd"

  This is a good one. Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz today gives top billing to Michelle Malkin...

  ...Kurtz knows exactly what Malkin is up to here. She's doing the very thing he said was "absurd" -- but he went ahead and publicized her efforts, anyway, while ignoring their true nature. Kurtz says that tarring an ideology with a few vile comments is an absurd tactic in general -- without noting that this is exactly what Malkin is doing...
  -- Greg Sargent

  http://mediamatters.org/items/200703020002

  Thu, Mar 1, 2007
  Kurtz glossed over Malkin's attack on "left-wing patriotism," despite asserting that "rantings of the fringe ... shouldn't be used to tar an entire ideology"

  . . . But while Kurtz quoted from Malkin's original post on the subject, he failed to include her suggestion that the remarks were characteristic of "left-wing patriotism and compassion." As blogger Greg Sargent noted, Kurtz's omission is particularly noteworthy because later in his column, Kurtz specifically disavows exactly what Malkin does on her blog -- without noting her doing it: "[I]t's absurd to view these assassination fantasies as anything other than the rantings of the fringe, and ... they shouldn't be used to tar an entire ideology." . . .

  . . . At no point in his column did Kurtz mention that Malkin was engaging in the exact behavior he criticized. . . .
  -- J.M.

  Kurtz may be predictable, but he is certainly well skilled in his craft. He knows that most people will only see how he promoted Malkinism, not how he pretended to disclaim it. And if anybody objects, he'll point to his implausible disclaimer and he'll deny that he was promoting Malkinism.

  —sysprog
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