Midterm madness: Spokesman confirms obvious

"In a space where the line between journalist and advocate is blurrier than ever, it might have made a much stronger statement for him to decline the award and stand in the press gallery with everyone else covering the event."

But don't journalists accept awards from presidents? The government isn't bestowing them, but presidents hand them out at the White House Correspondents Dinner and elsewhere.

Mel's rage

I found no reference to Mel Gibson in the news columns of the New York Times and Washington Post. How can that be? One of the most famous stars in Hollywood is caught on tape in an abusive, racist, threatening conversation with a girlfriend whose teeth he has already damaged, and it doesn't qualify as "real" news? This is not something being claimed by sources; that's his voice on those horrifying audiotapes. (Here's the latest one, Part 3, which includes his reference to "wetbacks.")

Mel has few friends these days, says the Daily Beast's Rebecca Dana:

"Conservative pundits and evangelical Christian leaders have always been Mel Gibson's biggest apologists and fans. For the first time ever, after the release of two damning tapes in which the blue-eyed misanthrope threatens violence against the mother of his child, they are now, uniformly, silent.

"Where is Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, who gave a full-throated defense of Gibson after his spitting anti-Semitic tirade at Los Angeles cops in 2006?. . . .

"A spokeswoman for Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network said she had no idea if Robertson, who called The Passion of The Christ a 'deeply personal film,' would ever be in a position to comment on Gibson's latest scandal. . . .

"Those who were willing to forgive Gibson's past trespasses have been largely quiet in this scandal so far. Just one--conservative blogger Doug Powers, writing on Michelle Malkin's website--offered a tepid objection, blasting William Morris Endeavor for dropping Gibson 'because he used the 'N-word' in an unhinged privately recorded rant,' while keeping as clients a host of hip hop stars, including Mary J. Blige."

Blogger Keli Goff wonders whether we're focused on the wrong thing:

"Here's my question, 'What is it that's really finished off Gibson's career?' Because the timeline of events media headlines used in other comparable cases from Roman Polanski to Chris Brown seem to indicate that allegations of assaulting a woman, or in Polanski's case a girl, (even with supporting evidence or a conviction) are not enough to permanently knock someone off of a pop cultural pedestal. . . .

"In Gibson's case it appears that everyone was so focused on not approving of his so-called 'golddigging' girlfriend, (whom Gibson accused of extortion) that whether or not he knocked her teeth loose became secondary to whether or not she was trying to possibly turn his knocking her teeth loose to her financial advantage. But the most telling clue regarding where our priorities lie, is that the majority of headlines chronicling Gibson's downfall in recent weeks, (from major publications to small blogs) highlight Gibson's alleged use of the N-word on tape. Overlooked is the fact that he appears to be terrorizing a woman with an infant on tape."

It says something about these tapes that the racial and ethnic epithets are not the most revolting part.

Howard Kurtz also works for CNN and hosts its weekly media program, "Reliable Sources."