Howie Kurtz’s Unreliable Source
By NoQuarter on April 9, 2008 at 6:32 PM in Health Care, Hillary Clinton, Howard Kurtz, Media, Media Bias, Obamedia
This is breaking news. Well, it may breaking news to Howie Kurtz that he has an “unreliable source” feeding him false information. And that his unreliable source on CNN’s Reliable Sources, his 10 a.m. ET weekly Sunday show, was …
… none other than Howie Kurtz himself. Check out the April 6, 2008 CNN transcript of Reliable Sources, and the video of Kurtz who parroted unvetted media reports written before the story was fully checked out by his own Washington Post colleague Anne Kornblut and by No Quarter’s Big Kahuna. From that transcript:
KURTZ: Hillary Clinton has been telling a story on the trail about this sad story about a woman who lost her baby and died because, the former first lady said, she didn’t have $100 to pay the hospital. “The Washington Post” repeated this …
Well, it turns out it she is completely untrue. She was repeating this, someone had told her this. But the woman did have insurance. She was not turned away at the hospital. She was treated by an OB/GYN practice.
Should the media have done a better job of fact-checking here? [Yes, but you should have too, Mr. "Unreliable Source."]
[VIDEO PULLED TEMPORARILY]
There is ACTION YOU CAN TAKE BELOW to ask Howie Kurtz and the Washington Post to correct the record in their print editions and on Kurtz’s next Reliable Sources this coming Sunday:
Let Howie Kurtz and the editors of the Washington Post know what you think of their careless, inaccurate, unvetted conclusions:
E-mail Howie Kurtz. (Kurtz is a media columnist for the Washington Post, as well as doing his weekly CNN media show on Sunday mornings.)
And send an e-mail to the National desk at the Washington Post. (national@washpost.com)
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While you’re in the mood, write to Anne Kornbut, and please ask her why she framed Hillary Clinton’s stump speech, and retelling of this story, in such grim terms. CHECK OUT this horrid title:
In Speeches, Clinton Often Veers to Dark Side
It almost always comes when the audience least expects it: the moment Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton brings a roaring crowd to a hush with a heart-rending anecdote.
“I remember listening to a story about a young woman in a small town along the Ohio River, in Meigs County, who worked in a pizza parlor,” the Democratic presidential candidate said during a stop in Cleveland, beginning a particularly grim tale.“She got pregnant, she started having problems. There’s no hospital left in Meigs County, so she had to go to a neighboring county. She showed up, and the hospital said, ‘You know, you’ve got to give us $100 before we can see you.’ She didn’t have $100,” Clinton said.
“So the young woman went back home,” she continued. “The next time she went back, she was in an ambulance. It turned out she lost the baby. She was airlifted to Columbus.”
She paused before concluding: “And after heroic efforts at the medical center, she died.” The audience, as always, gasped.The story has become a staple of Clinton’s stump speech, a prime example of how, in a campaign year in which lofty phrases have taken center stage, she has rejected sweeping oratory — “just words,” as her campaign likes to accuse Democratic rival Barack Obama of offering — in favor of a dramatic speaking style all her own.
In hushed tones, sometimes with palpable sadness in her voice, Clinton tells dark, difficult anecdotes picked up on the campaign trail. They often relate to health matters, culled from her conversations with voters, and are designed to illustrate a policy point. …
“In Speeches, Clinton Often Veers to Dark Side” … what in the hell kind of title is that anyway?
For the real story — including Kornblut’s later blog update that corrects the errors in the earlier story above, and includes an account from a relative of the young mother who died — read our story, “Washington Post: Clinton Told True Tale of Woe, Says Kin [Updated].”
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Special thanks to C.S. for the video.
An “unreliable source” on “Reliable Source”. Pure. Gold.
Didn’t WAPO just win a bunh of Pulitzer’s ? There goes the credibility of that distinguished prize…Another one bites the dust…
The Pulitzers that the Post won were well-earned. One of them was for Dana Priest & Anne Hull’s series on the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed.
Email sent to Kurtz, not that he will give a shit. I am so tired of the media. Everyday I feel like I am fighting them off with swords, only they won’t die, they won’t fall, they won’t apologize, they won’t change their ways.
I simply hate all of these reporters, every last one them. Not one of them has an honest bone in his or her body.
Right, they’re lazy incompetents, they will not change.
But as compared to last election, we know their game, as do a lot more people.
So, their power is lessened.
Secondly, they have no talent, they don’t generate heat. In their world being cutting edge is very important, when the smell of mediocrity starts drifting from them, they lose hipness, they lose love. They dont like that, has been status. Matthews is a joke, right? With excpetion, they all are, they all know, no one likes to be left behind, ever.
They’re dying, look closely.
How tragically ironic.
They should use this clip as an educational tool in schools of journalism to start. Maybe pass it around to all the civil liberty wonks. I smell a great symposium!
This is so offensive so as to insult that further puts into question where our media went. Who are these bozos anyway?
Speaking of Bozos …
I didn’t make it in time to my remote control and cringed through CNN’s Latter Day Aaron Brown, Jack Cafferty going on and on in that “Scary Uncle” demeanor that promises he has real bad coffee breath …. Hillary is a liar!
Where do they get these guys? Who in the CNN bureau thinks this guy has any basis to opine about anything? Honestly, I have never known where they got this cheese head. Maybe the same locker room they picked up Olberbama.
I would PAY to bring Aaron back to replace him. I could much better sit through Aaron’s juicy mouth clicking than sit through one minute of that creep Cafferty.
Aaron baby! Where are you? I miss you!
Jack Cafferty has had his contract renewed and couldn’t care less what I think of him. This was his response to my email telling him to get his facts straight. I am saving that email to show the CNN company how arrogant and condescending that man is.
Are you serious? Send me that e-mail and I will publish it here.
susanunpc at gmail dot com
He is an a–. Arrogant and ignorant.
Yeah! Publish that puppy ASAP!
Yes, publish that email. I’m sick of that bloated ass Jack Cafferty. He is terrible in commentary and has some real issues. CNN out does FoxNews each time that man yaps.
MANHATTAN: CNN ANCHOR FINED IN TRAFFIC CASE A CNN news anchor, Jack Cafferty, will pay a $250 fine and perform 70 hours of community service after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, prosecutors said yesterday. Mr. Cafferty was charged with the traffic infraction, along with misdemeanor charges of reckless driving, assault and harassment, after the police said he knocked a man off a bike with his Cadillac on Ninth Avenue on May 14. The bicyclist, Billy Maldonado, told the police he was slightly injured. A traffic officer and several pedestrians ran after Mr. Cafferty’s car, but Mr. Cafferty drove through at least two red lights without stopping, according to a police complaint. (AP)
Whoa !!
And that guy is giving us his opinions on national TV ?
I used to listen to Diane Rehm show. On the show after Super Tuesday, she had some journalists over to talk about the primary results. Interestingly, all but one caller was for Hillary(talking about bias).
That one Hillary supporter said he voted for Hillary because he thought Hillary knows Washington better and she might be able to work through the bureaucracy, and get things done, especially w.r.t lobbyist. One very “well-informed” journalist told the caller that he had made the wrong choice because the only candidate who doesn’t take lobbyist money is Obama. Do I need to tell you who that journalist is? You got it right, it is Ms Anne Kornblut.
I cannot believe I used to turn the TV on, with the purpose of getting information from these bozos, these hacks and frauds.
It’s so aggravating because many people still do.
PS: Just check the transcript of Countdown with O’Reilly-wanna-be Keith Obamaman from Monday, after the entire story validation has been all over the place.
No thanks! It would spoil my appetite. I always took issue with his self-important pomposity.
Obamaman - there goes one great caricature.
Thinks he’s still on ESPN.
You are better off not listening to the corporate media.
Just boycott the media — they’ll get the idea when their numbers drop.
I just emailed both of them. I told Kurtz he should have her on and apologize in PERSON to her. I told Kornblut that she needed to put her apology in her column, NOT in the “Corrections” section.
What really pissed me off was their pompous, bemused tones and expressions when they were saying things like, “doesn’t she fact-check?” Or, “she COULD have googled it!” They were SO impressed with themselves and their “witty” attacks on her. Apparently, THEY could use a bit of fact-checking and googling THEMSELVES!!
I cannot BELIEVE this is what passes for journalism these days. It is truly shocking. And shocking that Clinton was both slandered AND libeled with such callous disregard. Reprehensible, truly reprehensible.
It is actually not just embarrasing for them, it’s hysterically funny to me!
They are in effect sitting there criticizing themselves!
AmyinSC,
I must confess that I loved your comment so much that I plagiarized some of it in my e-mails to Kurtz and the Washington Post! Forgive me, but you were so succinct that I had to use your demands that he apologize to her in person and in the column, not just in the “corrections” section. And I also pilfered your anger about their self-righteous claims that she didn’t do her research when THEY THEMSELVES didn’t do any!
Hope you don’t mind…that’s what you get for being articulate!
Hate to say it, but when you’re reduced to after the fact saying “see - we told you so” then you’re in dire straits. Most folks (those who care enough to search out the truth, and those who just swallow what they’re fed) have gotten the updated truth behind the story.
So, you’re just echoing. Only problem is that those same people are also getting a steady diet of things that can’t be repudiated (that goes w/ both candidates) - see, that’s where the efforts should be spent. Unless you can’t refute them…
You lost me a lil there Ace. A short trip, trust me.
I believe in the Universal Law of Cummulative Effect. Echoes baby, they have reach.
This is one reason I canceled my Post subscription this week.
This is so incredibly ridiculous. The media can’t get IT”S facts straight. That is the real problem. Among numerous other things.
It’s a combination of lazy reporting, sensationalism, and a concerted effort to derail Hillary’s campaign. We all have to call them out whenever they commit these unfair acts. I never used to write any organizations when I have seen unfairness, but I have become much more aware of the sleaze that goes on, and I want them to know that there are real people that disagree with them.
Seems the media continues to role of astroturfing the master Axekrod practices prefectly, make a charge for a gain, if wrong, backpage the remorse of it, after all, the shock has been made, the damage done, any recanting of it makes the cantor appear the fool and the loser of respect of those who listen!
I wrote both places asking for a retraction or correction. Guess we’ll see what happens. I don’t think anyone’s retracted yet on passportgate or obamagate. They just put stuff out there and hope the public forgets.
I went cold turkey on these fuckers 8 weeks ago and I feel great.
That Jack Cafferty got his contract renewed is really a big fat “fuck you” at us from Time/Warner.
Hey: Back at you!
More and more in my travels across the Internet I hear echoes of people saying the same thing. Let’s see how long they last. Unlike Caffety, I don’t have a contract with CNN. I have free will.
And free will’s a good thing.
Eventually, the advertisers are going yell uncle.
Obama and his supporters are on the Titanic. They’ve already hit the icebeg, but instead of bailing into lifeboats they prefer to go down with the ship.
There will be no survivors on this voyage!
Wow. Just wow.
If they were real journalists, they would be outraged that a person and their child died needlessly in America because they couldn’t get proper health care. The story itself is just incredibly sad. But I guess the media doesn’t care. They all HAVE health care coverage.
I sent off emails to Kornblut and the national desk of the Post. For what it’s worth. Until they feel the real loss of readership and viewers for “Howie” they won’t care.
It is apparent to anyone who cares to look that there is very little ethical or honest journalism left in this country. The Post and the Times are little better than any tabloid available at the checkout line of the nearest supermarket.
Cafferty wouldn’t make a pimple on a real newsman’s ass. Just don’t watch these clowns. Just don’t buy the Post or any other paper that does not do it’s job of informing in an honest way.
What gripes me is that people watch this crap, read these cretins and then complain about how terrible they are. Do you think Cafferty cares what you think of him as he takes home his big fat paycheck? But he does care that you’re watching because that helps the ratings. And he certainly doesn’t care about the opinions of older women because that demographic isn’t important to their sponsors.
I unsubscribed to my online email editions of both the Post and the NY Times. I get information about them places like NQ. You read through their slime so I don’t have to. One or two readers reporting to hundreds of us doesn’t up their circulation.
Same for cable news. I wouldn’t watch MSNBC for any reason. A few good pieces, such as the one’s on Don Siegelman, I get online.
And I wouldn’t watch Cafferty unless someone was holding a gun to my head. But his contract was renewed, and probably contained a nice juicy raise for his dedicated work in the field of bashing Hillary Clinton. It all makes my head hurt.
I’ve actually seen blogging on the question ‘will the lefty blogs be needed anymore in the coming utopia that is Obama?’ OK, they didn’t exactly phrase it like that.
My answer: Keep your heads buried in that sand. I can list some lefty blogs that are no longer needed NOW. Don’t wait for the Utopia rush… do us all a favor and just go away now.
As for Howie Kurtz, he’s always been an asshole. My guess is that he always will be an asshole. Cafferty? It doesn’t surprise me to hear that he was guilty of a hit and run. He does it every time he opens his mouth on live tv.
Howard Kurtz is truly an Unreliable Source on this issue, and many more. I sent this to Howard Kurtz this past Sunday regarding the Randi Rhodes incident. See my letter below:
Mr. Kurtz:
You were just talking about Randi Rhodes making disparaging, vulgar remarks about Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton at an appearance.
This was NOT just any appearance — Randi Rhodes spoke those words at a BARACK OBAMA FUNDRAISER!!! http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/04/04/barack-randi-cozy-as-can-be/
Why don’t you report that? It was on Barack Obama’s website for a while, UNTIL this exploded, then it was purged off the site. As a matter of fact, why hasn’t anyone else in the Media reported this FACT? Your show is all about critiquing the Media. Well, why don’t you start with yourself?!
It would be really nice if we could actually get a story from the Media about Barack Obama that isn’t sugar-coated, for once. While this was on Obama’s website, you all were slacking showing him throwing gutter balls at the bowling alley all week long. Well, that is not the only gutter ball that he was throwing. I can NOT fathom what CNN would be doing if Sen. Clinton had hired someone to disparage Barack Obama with RACIAL EPITHETS at a fundraiser. You ALL would be running THAT STORY 24/7 for weeks. You’d at least question Sen. Clinton about it. But, being that this emanates from Barack Obama’s campaign, is this somehow supposed to be acceptable? I clearly recall John Kerry taking a TREMENDOUS amount of heat for an innuendo that Whoopi Goldberg mentioned at one of his fundraiser events in 2004 — an innuendo! This situation is MUCH WORSE because Randi Rhodes was at a sanctioned Barack Obama fundraiser to make these vulgar remarks and all of the background cheering and jeering were from Obama supporters — this was an Obama sold-out event. The way it stands — CNN and the rest of the Media are tacitly exonerating this behavior — or, in the least possible scenario, covering for Obama. Clearly, this deserves for you to cover this story with more than a mention of “an appearance.” At least you can let the American public know that this was an Obama fundraiser, and not merely just an appearance.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,