Easy-on Eason!

Slate ^ | 8 February, 2005 | Mickey Kaus

[Servant of the 9]

Kurtz Does CNN's Damage Control: If you were worrying that WaPo's conflicted Howie Kurtz would bend over backwards to be tough on his own CNN bosses, you can stop now. Kurtz's article ... well, let's just say that if a p.r. agent or damage control spinner produced a piece designed to try and save CNN exec Eason Jordan's job, it would be the piece Kurtz wrote in the Post today. Why? Here are some of the blatant and subtle pro-Jordan tricks:

1) Witness Protection:

2) Hide the Videotape:

3) The Fallback Spin:

4) The Pigeonhole:

5) The Take-home Lesson:

I'm less concerned about Jordan's job, though than Kurtz's job. Maybe Kurtz is right, and there is no story here. But the point is that nobody trusts Kurtz to tell us this--nobody should trust Kurtz to tell us this--because he is writing about the corporation and the people that give him a TV show and make him rich and famous! (Duh!) ... That's true even if Kurtz sincerely believes the Jordan flap is no big deal--it's especially true if he's sincere, because people subconsciously tend to come to sincere beliefts that just happen to benefit them. It's elementary Ev Psych. There are dozens of subconscious judgments embedded in Kurtz's analysis, and no reason for Post readers to trust any of them. ...

(But at least Kurtz isn't a guy who lectures the rest of the world on conflicts of interest like an "East German figure skating judge!" ... Oh wait! ... )

[Drango]

Conflict of interest? It's like Clinton opining on court perjury or marriage fidelity.

[68skylark]

The whole MSM is a corrupt morass. The Washington Post and CNN are just two examples from a whole barrel of rotten apples.