The American Spectator

A few noteworthy exchanges from today’s Media Backtalk chat between Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz and readers:

p>” Washington, D.C. : br> “Hello Howard, /p> p>”I know how you probably hate this topic, but with the success of FoxNews as the #1 cable network, Rush as the #1 talk host, could you possibly consider that they are #1 precisely because they are conservative outlets for news/analysis and that Americans are flocking to them because they’ve had enough of soft leftward bias in the mainstream media? If you think they are just successful creations for a conservative market and if you think the overall media is mainstream how do you address the lack of a liberal cable network or liberal talk radio hosts? br> Thanks a lot. I think Media Notes is one of the freshest features in the Post.” /p>

“Howard Kurtz: Thanks. I don’t think there’s any question that Rush and Fox have found an audience in part because many conservatives feel alienated by the mainstream media. I don’t think they appeal only to conservatives, but Limbaugh in particular is constantly hammering the press for a left-leaning bias. Hard-core liberals may not feel the need for a ‘separate’ network, and libs have failed to come up with compelling personalities in talk radio who could build an audience even a fraction of Limbaugh’s. Maybe Carville will carry the banner when he starts (albeit it only part-time) at Crossfire.”

Pay attention to that notion of “hard-core liberals.” For one thing, it’s relevant to the very next question that came up in today’s chat:

“Kansas City, Mo.: Howie,

“Considering the flap over the Post having an ex-American Spectator writer review ‘The Hunting of the President,’ how did the Post repeat that by having another ex-American Spectator writer review David Brock’s book. I read the limited explanation but there was no mention of how Bawer was picked in the first place.

“Does this have something to do with the Post’s coverage? Last year the Columbia Journalism Review’s asked ‘How do editors explain to already distrustful readers why favorable reviews of The Hunting of the President could be found only in papers not cited by the authors in their “most damning indictment” of the press?’ Any comments?”

“Howard Kurtz: I wrote critically of the assigning of the first review to an ex-Spectator person. While Book World’s offense is a little less egregious in this case — Bawer left the Spectator before Brock got there and, more importantly, didn’t reveal the connection to the editors — it was still a bad move. They clearly need to press reviewers more aggressively about whether they’ve got any ties to the author or the major institutions described in the book being assigned. But there is no Post agenda here; weeks before the review, I wrote a lengthy piece on David Brock and his book that most people seem to regard as fair (though some conservatives say I wasn’t hard enough on Brock).”