Kurtz: Fair to ask if media skepticism is behind declining support for war

[BurtWorm]

In his online forum at the WaPo, Kurtz was just asked by a poster:


Louisville, Ky.: Howard,

I'm not sure why you would take up the "media doesn't report the good stories" meme, as you have on CNN recently. Considering that 80 journalists have died in Iraq and that no one can go anywhere without armed transport, it's pretty obvious that the bad news in Iraq heavily outweighs the good news. I'm all for diversity of opinion, but hard news should strive to report facts and not please all audiences.

Do you agree?

Howard Kurtz: I don't adopt the "meme," as you put it, I raise questions about it. Clearly the security situation, as I have written many times, makes it difficult for the courageous journalists there to move around and talk to ordinary Iraqis. And it may be that the violence has gotten so bad in recent months that that is the overwhelming reality of life in that country. But I also think it's fair to question whether declining public support for the war, and the journalists' own views, have played a role. If the media coverage in fact is turning sharply more skeptical, and in some cases hostile, that could have a major impact on the country as it did during the Vietnam War.




My question to him:


You wonder whether it's fair to ask if media reports are turning public opinion in the US against the war? Don't you want to know first if the reports are accurate? Isn't that a more important question? Do the media really need to concern themselves with what role they play in the administration's poll numbers?

[Faygo Kid]

1. Garbage, Mr. Kurtz. Those of us opposed from day 1 have been ignored

He has it backwards. Does he believe that if the media had continued to cheerlead for the Vietnam War, there would have been no protests, or lack of support? Media follows the public, not the other way around. The media has been way behind the public regarding skepticism about and opposition to this war, and to ascribe attitudes now to media leadership is crap. You are full of it, Mr. Kurtz.

[mattclearing]

2. I offer a situation to consider:

You are a journalist on the ground in Iraq.

You have spent the day watching and taking notes as the unit you are embedded with installs a playground.

A block away, an explosion tears a hole in a local market. You are the first reporter on the scene.

You can only file one report on today's events. Which do you report?

[BurtWorm]

7. If I'm of the Howard Kurtz school, I ruminate over how the report

will affect public sympathy for the war and if it will be viewed as unfair to the Bush administration. I would then probably have to go back to the playground, which is much safer in every respect.

[mattclearing]

14. Kurtz is such a putz.

I really can't stand the guy.

[warrens]

3. It's fair to ask the question

The answer, of course, is no, if he means that journos are biased against the war and are making shit up to end it. Are most of them repulsed by the war? Yes. Does this come across in their stories? Yes.

But as a WaPo writer put it earlier, she went to the forces and asked to see all these good news events. And was told, oh, it's too dangerous. If we show you the school, they'll blow it up. If we show you the oil line, they'll blow it up.

Sure, there might be a few feel-good stories there not being covered. But the overwhelming story there is "it's a fucking disaster" and no amount of reports of repainted schools is going to change that.

[GOPFighter]

4. In fairness...

Howie says "...I also think it's fair to question whether declining public support for the war...have played a role." Of course it's fair to question it, it's fair to question every aspect of the war. The fact reamins, the public where told this was going to be a walk in the park. The Administration mishandled the war and we're still fighting after three years. THAT's why public support is declining, not the negative media coverage.

[NanceGreggs]

5. Howard Kurtz has the credibility to influence nationwide opinions?

On anything?

:rofl:

[AndyTiedye]

6. Kurtz Seems to Imply Here That Drumming Up Support for the War is His Job

His job is supposed to be reporting the news. If that causes public support
for the war to decline, so be it.


It Was Only Due to **'s LIES That the War Had Any Support to Begin With

[tularetom]

8. If he thinks the media are "piling on"

because they sense that public opinion has turned against *, is he not implying that they are led in their reporting by what they believe to be public opinion. In other words, during the run up to the Iraq invasion, were they ignoring facts and reporting only stories favorable to * because they thought that's what the public wanted to hear? That's what Kurtz seems to be saying and that in itself is as forceful a condemnation of the media as anyone could offer. WTF - we only get to hear what the press thinks we want to hear? Suspicions confirmed, perhaps unintentionally.

[BlooInBloo]

9. Lemme just throw another possibility out there....

Maybe declining support for the war is due more to TEACHERS BEING BEHEADED IN FRONT OF THEIR STUDENTS.

Fucking jackass.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=761679&mesg_id=761679

[oasis]

10. Kurtz is a tool of the Rove WH. He was quick to dismiss the Jeff Gannon

story when it first broke.

[kenny blankenship]

11. The security situation is much, much worse than in Vietnam

right up to the liberation of Saigon. I haven't been to Baghdad and I wasn't in Vietnam, but statistics about journalistic life expectancy and the testimony of journalists from the two conflicts bear this out.
If the media is skeptical about "progress in Iraq" it's a belated and very well-founded distrust. The reports of progress, not details mind, but vehement claims of progress, all come from public figures who've been lying for years about the situation there while people die and billions of dollars go missing.

[bklyncowgirl]

12. Is it fair to ask if Howard Kurtz is on the White House payroll? nt

[endarkenment]

13. Kurtz unwittingly admits that the talking point is political bullshit.

"Don't you want to know first if the reports are accurate?"

I think Howie Kurtz (R-Mediawhore) answers your question right here:

"If the media coverage in fact is turning sharply more skeptical, and in some cases hostile, that could have a major impact on the country as it did during the Vietnam War."

His concern is not the reality on the ground in Iraq, his concern is obviously keeping the American public ignorant of that reality for as long as possible. "The country" here is not Iraq, which he more or less admits is a complete mess, but is in fact "the people of the united states".

[Ignacio Upton]

15. The same media that is "turning opinion against the war"

helped get the public to SUPPORT it back in 2002 and '03. Remember CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News all showed banners on their front screens that said "Showndown with Iraq" as early as January, February, or March of 2002? Remember how they hyped intelligence from people like Chalabi (aka Judy Miller)? The traditional media did not question Bush adequately because they were afraid of being accused of being unpatriotic, just for doing their fucking job!

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

16. It was very well understood back during Vietnam that

the Pentagon and the government were putting out "happy news" about the war every day. Obviously they have the incredibly huge budgets and sophistication and skills to do this on a more extreme level today. He knows that a free, ethical, honest press is desperately needed to counteract that. He is just pretending to be stupid.

[K-W]

17. Worst media critic ever. EOM

[Spazito]

18. Is it fair to ask Mr. Kurtz if his wife is still receiving contracts from

the RNC? Is she currently working for any republican candidates?

Mr. Kurtz has NO credibility, never did, imo.

[Gabi Hayes]

19. DAMN YOU! I wanted to be the one to ask that question

he really is beneath contempt

see the transcript from yesterday's show, and the obvious way thoughout, including the exchange between Press and Bennett, he revealed his own bias toward the junta

and don't forget he wrote a POS book about the Clinton Spin Machine, back during the Hunting of the President days, so don't believe for a minute that he's not an EXPERT on the myriad ways an administration tries to bend the news into its own reality

[Spazito]

21. LOL, sorry bout that!

It always amazes me how no one ever brings up his wife's contracts and his conflict of interest as a result. He should NOT be asked to comment on anything in relation to politics/media, imo.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

20. Fair to ask if Kurtz is a media-ho for the Right Wing? Seems fair to me.