**UPDATE: I missed this earlier, but in another tweet, Kurtz offered the Clinton sex scandal–the one Kurtz’s Newsweek attempted to kill–as an example of unbiased media coverage of a Democrat sex scandal! The hubris is breathtaking. Kurtz also suggests that the old media handled the Spitzer and Edwards scandals admirably. More here.
***
From the NewsBeast/CNN news guy:
A quick response to the guy who defended the HuffPo Breitbart front-page ban and got the Sherrod story wrong: Even if the infamous Weinergate image was “faked,” that means someone hacked into a sitting congressman’s verified twitter account and posted porn. THAT’S STILL NEWS! Why not report it as a developing story, just like we have here at the Bigs? If Kurtz truly believes Rep. Weiner is the victim of a hack-attack, why wouldn’t he cover the story for that reason?
Kurtz later walked back this statement by tweeting, “of course reporters should have looked into Weiner hacking controversy.” To paraphrase Kurtz, sometimes it pays to think a second time.
I know Tina Brown took over Newsweek last year, but if this is the way their top-tier journalists are treating potential Democrat sex scandals (real or “faked”), this invites the question: has anything really changed? You may recall it was Newsweek which killed Michael Isikoff’s Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton affair scoop over a decade ago. The Drudge Report picked it up, and conservative new media was born. So, we who make our livings in the new media all owe a debt of gratitude to Newsweek employees and their rich history of protecting Democrats, but America deserves better.