Friday, October 12, 2007

And finally we come to the man who surely claims the prize as WaPo’s most pathetic shill, Howard Kurtz. He masquerades as a media critic. In fact he’s a media buffoon. But beyond that, Kurtz is one of the dumbest figures in print or on the airwaves. That all came home brilliantly last night as Kurtz made his appearance on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. I was amazed both with Stewart and Kurtz. Together with his staff, Stewart delivered a satirically brilliant introduction, with videos, which effectively eviscerated Kurtz’s core message about the war and its packaging. Stewart also delivered a series of precise, well thought-through questions to which Kurtz gave a series of non-responses. And on point after point, Stewart challenged Kurtz’s facile and false conclusions. Kurtz was hung up to dry. And he didn’t even understand what was happening. It does in my mind come down to Broder, Ignatius and Kurtz. But I’m giving top honors to Howard: the man who’s done the most to destroy WaPo’s reputation in the arena of opinion.

Catch Kurtz on the Daily Show here