Is "Howard Kurtz" a software program?

[CatWoman]

From Tuesday's post on the moronic Cheney comments "scandal":

It is only a matter of time before Brit Hume and Matt Drudge begin hyping the scandal of how liberal bloggers were expressing dismay that Dick Cheney wasn't killed, and Howard Kurtz will write a drooling profile of the Blogging Warriors who exposed this scandal and join in with stern condemnation over how terrible it is that the Left is so filled with venom and rage.

Howard Kurtz today, in The Washington Post:

This is really sick.

I know we're living in a polarized time. I know there are people who absolutely detest George Bush and Dick Cheney. I know they like to vent their spleen online, sometimes in vulgar terms, and hey, that's life in a democracy.

But some of the comments posted after a suicide bomber blew himself up at Afghanistan's Bagram Air Force Base, while Cheney was there--killing as many as 23 people--are nothing short of vile.

The comments appeared on the Huffington Post, which, to its credit, took them down. But some were preserved by Michelle Malkin, and I reproduce them here . . .

Says Malkin: "Whatever your partisan leanings, an attack planned on the Vice President of the United States is an attack on America. Some of our fellow Americans, however, can't put their sneering hatred of the White House aside."

Says me: Don't people realize that openly rooting for the death of an American official says way more about them than their intended target?

Kurtz then cursorily adds, buried at the bottom of his column:

I would agree that it's absurd to view these assassination fantasies as anything other than the rantings of the fringe, and that they shouldn't be used to tar an entire ideology.

No, perish the though. Nobody would ever try to suggest that these 200 or so comments are reflective of anything important at all.

That is why every right-wing outlet from Rush Limbaugh to Sean Hannity to Kurtz's best friend, Michelle Malkin (and now Kurtz himself), have been pumping this story madly -- not because anyone would ever try to suggest that these comments reflect negatively on liberals or the left, but merely because it is so very, very significant to discuss as prominently as possible the views of 200 stray, arbitrary, anonymous blog commenters (whose identity can never be determined even for authenticity purposes). Nobody -- and certainly not Kurtz -- is attempting in any way to suggest that these comments should be tied to anyone beyond the individual commenters. Not at all.


http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/?last_story=/opinion/greenwald/2007/03/01/kurtz/

[leveymg]

1. Hah! Putz, Version 1.0

I'm pretty sure the WaPo is mostly written and edited by machine.

[Elidor]

2. Howard Kurtz seems to be infatuated with Malkin

The idea that Malkin could credibly speak about anyone else's lack of civility is absurd. But Kurtz is glossing over her record of hate-speech and giving her a platform. It reeks.

Eric Boehlert at Media Matters recently wrote a must-read column on the relationship between Kurtz and Malkin. It's one of the best pieces I've yet seen from them and I recommend it highly:

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200702270003

[CatWoman]

5. thank you, HH

:hi:

[Patriought]

3. Friggin' Hypocrites...

Once, just once, I wish these idiots would visit a site like freerepublic.com.

You can't find a post that dose'nt call for death to liberals.

Those Nazi-wannabes write crap like that all the time.

Incidentally, I do not want Bush or Cheney to die. I want them to live very long lives, spending every day of it breaking rocks in the prison yard.

[tularetom]

4. IMHO the elevation of Malkin to sainthood should be encouraged

She should be compared favorably, in brains, looks and influence, to former right wing hate babe ann coulter at every opportunity and by every pundit on every wingnut talkfest. Her femininity should be contrasted with coulter's, well, unfemininity. An ongoing campaign to see her replace coulter as the r/w jerkoff fantasy of all one-hand-typing wing nut mama's basement dwellers should be vigorously pursued.

And then I want the TV and movie rights to the chick fight that results.