As Bob Woodward is starting to learn, you don’t want to get on Howard Kurtz‘s bad side. In today’s Washington Post Kurtz politely lets Mary Mapes have it for refusing to acknowledge the problems with her “60 Minutes II” report on George W. Bush’s Air National Guard past. She has thereby “open[ed] herself up to the charge that her obsession has clouded her judgment.” Before he’s done, Kurtz is comparing her to another investigative journalist who in disgrace ended up committing suicide.

All very fine. So why was Kurtz much more tolerant of Mapes in his November 9 report on her? Her obsession hadn’t yet clouded her judgment?