Kurtz Bites the Fox News Channel Spin

Howard Kurtz used his Monday Media Notes column in the Post to examine "The Beck Factor at Fox: Some news staffers say his comments undermine their work." What a joke.

Look, it's true that Beck's program is indeed different than the daytime programming on FNC. And even though Kurtz doesn't directly quote a single FNC news employee critical of Beck (even anonymously), I'm sure there are indeed many 'news' staff at FNC who don't like Beck, for various reasons.

The problem with Kurtz's story is not so much that he fails to get a single person to be quoted, even anonymously, supporting his thesis. It's that his thesis is essentially the line FNC wants out there, and it's, you know, not true.

The notion Kurtz advances is that there are actually a fair number of "journalists" at FNC, who have work that can be "undermined" by Beck. It's the idea that the daytime programming at FNC is somehow hard news.

This is what the whole argument between Fox and the White House was about back in October. It's one thing if, say, Ruth Marcus falls for the idea that daytime programming at Fox is "news". But here we're talking Howard Kurtz, who should know better.