Critiquing the Press

Howard Kurtz has been The Washington Post's media reporter since 1990. He is also the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and the author of "Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War," "Media Circus," "Hot Air," "Spin Cycle" and "The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation." Kurtz talks about the press and the stories of the day in "Media Backtalk."

He was online Tuesday, August 5 at noon ET to take your questions and comments.

The transcript follows.

Media Backtalk transcripts archive

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Washington: Howard, I was thinking about how I keep hearing about McCain running ads critical of Obama, and am curious if anyone keeps track of what proportion of a candidate's ads primarily focus on himself ("issue" ads) vs. ads that focus primarily on his opponent ("attack" ads).

Howard Kurtz: I asked that very question last week. McCain has run four straight ads critical of Obama, but his folks say that since the beginning of June, 80 percent of McCain's ad volume has been positive. (Obama has now hit McCain with two straight ads on energy.) Keep in mind, though, that the McCain he-didn't-visit-the-troops ad ran less than a dozen times but dominated cable news for days. In other words, campaigns often count on the media to amplify their advertising -- even more so with Web videos, which cost them nothing beyond the price of producing them.

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Silver Spring, Md.: So McCain is mocking Obama for suggesting energy conservation is a good idea? We can drill our way out of this without any sacrifice by hard working Americans? This approach worked very very well for Reagan against Carter, and my guess is that it will work again. Any chance I'm wrong in my thoughts on human nature?

Howard Kurtz: Of course, McCain is suggesting that all Obama wants to do is urge Americans to inflate their tires, when the Illinois senator actually has a detailed energy plan. The truth is, even with McCain flipping on offshore drilling and now Obama doing a modified half-flip on drilling, there is no quick and easy fix to an energy problem that has been 30 years in the making.

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Little Rock, Ark.: Deroy Murdock and Ana Marie Cox appeared on "Reliable Sources" Sunday. One topic of discussion was Barack Obama stating that he did not look like the people on dollar and $5 dollar bills, and whether that was accusing the McCain campaign of being racist. Both guests agreed that Obama was playing the "race card," and that race should have no place in politics.

Both Murdock and Cox felt that the press was merely responding to, not creating a story on race. There was no mention of the column by ABC's Jake Tapper accusing Obama of calling McCain a racist that preceded and likely ignited the McCain campaign camp's response. Two question's occur: Isn't it ridiculous that any minority presidential candidate has to contort themselves in an effort to avoid discussions of race? Didn't Jake Tapper serve as a catalyst for the McCain "race card" response?

Howard Kurtz: Well, I don't know why you would single out Tapper. Other journalists also said that Obama was invoking race in saying that McCain was trying to scare people about him, and Obama himself later conceded that race was a factor in what he was saying but that he was not accusing the McCain camp of racial tactics. At the same time, since Obama had said similar things before (without invoking McCain's name), there is the possibility that the McCain team manufactured some outrage in order to throw a brushback pitch at Obama. Having been out with the McCain campaign at the time, it was curious that while his aides were making the charge, McCain didn't seem to want to talk about it.

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Washington: Your column yesterday was one of the biggest whine pieces I have read in a long time. What do you want, to have access to the candidate from the time he brushes his teeth until he puts on his PJs? Sometimes constant media access is bad -- let the candidate breathe a bit. It's not like the media is completely shut out.

washingtonpost.com: Thrown Off the Bus (Post, Aug. 4)

Howard Kurtz: The whining is in your imagination. I wasn't complaining about the limited access -- I didn't even ask for an interview -- but I was reporting on how significantly the McCain campaign strategy has changed when it comes to the press. This is a candidate who told me on his plane in January that even if he won the GOP nomination, he wouldn't limit access to reporters because "that destroys credibility." And besides, he said: "I enjoy it a lot. It keeps me intellectually stimulated, it keeps me thinking about issues, and it keeps me associated with a lower level of human being than I otherwise would be."

Managing the media is a major challenge for every presidential campaign, which is why I report on it.

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Anonymous: Why would anyone need to watch the Olympics when we've got Obama and McCain doing backflips on oil drilling, troop withdrawals and immigration policy?

Howard Kurtz: Now all we need is press judges holding up scorecards.

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Bradenton, Fla.: I think I can understand the Obama campaign's reluctance to mention that John McCain's ranking fifth from the bottom of his class (and reputation as a hot-dogger). I do not understand the media's reluctance to do so. Surely the similarities to the underachiever now in the Oval Office can't be overlooked.

Howard Kurtz: It's hardly a secret -- McCain himself mentions it all the time. He's accomplished a fair amount since then. So I don't think the election is going to turn on it. Nor do I think the A student always wins elections.

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Weekly Radio Address: In the wake of Obama's "presumptuousness," is John McCain still running his presidential Weekly Radio Address? Did anyone other than CNN pick them up?

Howard Kurtz: He is, and I don't know who carries it. It just sort of materialized one week. I suppose it's mainly a way of providing sound for TV and radio producers to use every weekend.

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New Britain, Conn.: Is Bill O'Reilly getting talking points directly from the White House? He says he isn't!

Howard Kurtz: Well, Scott McClellan has apologized for suggesting that O'Reilly was getting such talking points. And think about it: Does Bill O'Reilly need the White House to tell him what to say? The man has opinions on everything. Those views were often sympathetic to the Bush administration, but I hardly think he needed a typed sheet of paper, any more than did liberals who defended the Clinton White House.

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Re: Too many Obama photos: Howard: I'd like to take exception to the Post's ombudsman's criticism that there were too many photos of Obama as compared to McCain in the paper's coverage. This reminded me of the surveys that showed how much coverage of the Bush administration was positive or negative. In that case, Fox's coverage was shown to be about 50-50, and this was viewed by some as fair. But if most of the news surrounding the administration is bad (a struggling occupation of Iraq, budget concerns, investigations of administration officials), "fair" reporting would actually show an imbalance toward negative reporting. I would bet most of the coverage of the Hoover administration was pretty negative.

Also, if Obama is a historic figure in presidential politics and if he undertakes photogenic events -- including a campaign that draws large crowds in the U.S., and a tour of the Middle East and Europe that includes meetings with major figures and a speech in front of 200,000 people -- isn't that going to cause your paper and others to print more photos of him? I'd love to know the photographic breakdown of the 1980 campaign, where I bet Reagan won the photo war. Your thoughts? Thanks.

washingtonpost.com: The Story the Campaign Pictures Tell (Post, Aug. 3)

Howard Kurtz: One hundred and twenty-two photos of Obama and 78 of McCain during the same period? Come on. That's indefensible, and I'm not going to try to defend it. I'm not saying there has to be a one-for-one quota -- Obama was in the news far more during his overseas trip, and of course there would be more pictures of him that week -- but there has to be a rough balance. We're not electing the most photogenic president, or at least that was my understanding. By the way, I keep making the same point about television air time, magazine covers and so on.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism says McCain's coverage equaled Obama's last week for the first time in the general election. A midcourse correction? Well, some of it had to do with the Paris/Britney ad.

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Washington: Okay, dumb question: Sometimes you see the nightly news anchor doing a preview of what will be on that evenings news during their early morning programming (say, the "Today" show). How does that work? Does the nightly news anchor tape the promo the night before, or do they all work 12-plus hours a day? I've always wondered. ... Thanks!

Howard Kurtz: Those morning previews are taped the night before. Network anchors generally tape newsier promos about an hour before airtime that the local affiliates can use on their 6 p.m. newscasts.

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New York: Be honest: Journalists have some sort of secret contest to see who can write the stupidest campaign story, right? Because that's the only sensible explanation for the Wall Street Journal's story about how people won't vote for Obama because he's skinny. It makes me sad when I can't tell the difference between the Wall Street Journal and the Onion.

washingtonpost.com: Too Fit to Be President? Facing an Overweight Electorate, Barack Obama Might Find Low Body Fat a Drawback (Wall Street Journal, Aug. 1)

Howard Kurtz: Let's just say I don't think that story will be winning a Pulitzer Prize. Even as a light feature, it seemed pretty silly. I can confirm, from first-hand observation, that Obama is pretty skinny. So what?

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New York: Hi! After reading your article, "Thrown Off the Bus," I am curious about the press aides chastising John King because a question was not on an "agreed-upon agenda." Do the traveling press always have to stick to an agenda for questions? Why? Especially during this crazy campaign period?

Howard Kurtz: Not at all. But in this case, the King interview had been scheduled in advance for a profile of McCain that CNN will run before the Republican convention. But John King says even in such a situation he reserves the right to ask a candidate about the news of the day. That was what the aides objected to, and then McCain himself cut it off after a very short answer.

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Chicago: Hey Howard, what's your take on the Dana Milbank imbroglio? I believe the response from the left wing is way over the top. Perhaps he didn't provide the perfect context, but he did not misquote. Given the time constraints on reporting and the caveats Milbank inserted in the article I think he did nothing wrong. I guess I am going to watch a lot more CNN. Does this mean we will get more Milbank on "Reliable Sources"?

washingtonpost.com: Dana Milbank And Unhappy Endings (Daily Kos, Aug. 4)

Howard Kurtz: I've been traveling and so haven't had a chance to look into it. But I can tell you that regardless of the specific complaint over that Milbank column, Dana had already set in motion plans to leave MSNBC as a contributor and join CNN. At least Olbermann wished him good luck.

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Minneapolis:"Now all we need is press judges holding up scorecards." We already have them -- they're called Cable News Pundits.

Howard Kurtz: Well, politics is like sports, isn't it?

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Washington: What are the feelings inside The Post newsroom about the condition of Bob Novak? I imagine some of the folks there know him pretty well.

washingtonpost.com: Citing 'Dire' Prognosis, Novak Retires Immediately (Post, Aug. 5)

Howard Kurtz: Actually, most people here don't know him at all. Novak's column was distributed through the Chicago Sun-Times and he had no professional connection to The Post, other than the fact that we ran his column. My feeling is that the diagnosis is quite sad and that whatever you think of Novak's journalism and his political views, he's a guy who kept on reporting till the age of 77, well after most of his contemporaries had retired.

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Washington: Hi Howard. One thing that struck me while reading your article about McCain's new restrictions on the press: It sounded exactly like the Bush routine during the last presidential election. Any thoughts on how McCain is peeling more pages from the Bush campaign book?

Howard Kurtz: But it's very different from the Bush campaign of 2000, which granted a lot of access. I remember flying along one day and being struck by how much time Bush spent chatting with reporters (though it was often about baseball). There was criticism, as you may recall, of Bush giving the reporters nicknames and so on. It's always very different when an incumbent president runs for re-election. Just the whole machinery surrounding Air Force One makes him seem a more remote figure to those covering his campaign.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Ron Suskind has written that the Bush White House ordered the CIA to produce fake letters establishing a link between the Sept. 11 murders and Iraq. The White House and former CIA Director Tenet strongly deny these allegations, but Suskind refused to back down and says he has sources. How big a story is this?

Howard Kurtz: Well, because it broke a few hours ago, we'll have to wait and see. I've skimmed the story but haven't had a chance to dig into the details.

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Washington: I enjoy "Reliable Sources," but to critique the media, you bring in members of the media and journalists. How about an outside voice? I have lots to say -- how about having me on as a man-on-the-street perspective?

Howard Kurtz: Everybody wants to be on TV!

We have on journalists because the show is about holding them accountable. We also have on commentators who are not part of the mainstream media gang. And occasionally we have political people or those who have been subjects of stories to take on what they view as unfair journalism.

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Re: Obama/McCain "Photogate": I just want to point out that your answer steers substantive reporting to the "he-said, she-said" dynamic that is at least partly to blame for many newspapers' declining revenues. You had a historic campaign trip, major meetings with foreign leaders and mass rallies balanced against Gramm calling us whiners and releasing attack ads. Which deserves more media coverage, especially of the positive sort?

Howard Kurtz: You must have misread my answer, which is that of course there should have been more pictures of Obama's trip. But over time, there should not be a huge imbalance in the number of photos, or the number of stories for that matter.

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Debate moderators: Here's the announced list of debate moderators: Jim Lehrer of PBS, Tom Brokaw of NBC, and Bob Schieffer of CBS will each moderate a presidential debate, which will take place on Sept. 26, Oct. 7 and Oct. 15. Gwen Ifill of PBS will moderate a vice presidential debate on Oct. 2. No one from ABC? Payback for their pitiful debate performance with the Democrats?

Howard Kurtz: The moderators are chosen by the Commission on Presidential Debates, and I don't know if the campaigns get to exercise veto power. Lehrer has of course been a fixture for several cycles; Ifill did one last time, as did Schieffer. Brokaw hasn't done one in awhile. Since Schieffer and Brokaw are both Sunday show hosts, not anchors, it's possible there was some resistance to Stephanopoulos because of his previous service in the Clinton White House. But that's just speculation on my part.

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Washington, DC: Howard, On the number of photos issue, I expect better of you. Are you saying that the newsworthiness of the events the candidate is participating in is irrelevant to the level of coverage? Would it be unfair if, during the week of the Republican national Convention, Obama went on vacation and the photos skewed 80/20 for McCain? Of course not.

Howard Kurtz: Am I mumbling today or something? There is nothing wrong with one candidate dominating the pictures during a given week -- at a convention or something. There is something definitely wrong with one candidate dominating the photos over a two-month period. Am I making myself clear?

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South Miami, Fla.: Howard, why doesn't McCain's dismal voting record (he has missed 63.3 percent of the votes in the current Congress!) ever make it into his media coverage? He is calling to Congress to return, while he himself only has cast a single vote since March 14 (cloture on the Dodd Amendment on April 8). Yet no one is pointing this out. Furthermore, McCain frequently accuses Obama of having voted on the wrong side of issues in the Senate (which invariably is reported), while he himself hasn't voted one way or another. How can this be overlooked so consistently?

Howard Kurtz: My own view is that when senators run for president, they miss a whole lot of votes and most voters give them a pass. It's not like Hillary, Obama or McCain were breaking any attendance records when they were constantly on the road.

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Fairfax, Va.: What is stopping The Post and other mainstream media luminaries from reporting on President Bush's role in not mitigating the rise in gas prices? After all, he has been one of the most powerful presidents in recent history. Why isn't The Post reporting on what he has done with that power to control gas prices? You all hardly mention him, although he has been and still is the president.

Howard Kurtz: I would prominently mention him, along with Bill Clinton, Bush 41 and Ronald Reagan. Each talked about energy independence but took only small steps toward making it happen -- along with a series of Congresses that were loath to do anything that would tick off the voters.

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Payson, Ariz.: Howard, thanks for taking the early post. I am traveling this week. ... How long do you think it will be before the Spears and Hilton camps sue the McCain campaign for everything it has in the bank? Last week's ad was not a "public service" message, it was an unequivocal buy-the-media, brand-endorsing advertisement -- and unauthorized use of an image in advertising is an actionable offense.

Howard Kurtz: I see zero possibility of a lawsuit. What are Paris and Britney going to object to, being called celebrities? The tarnishing of their sterling reputations? After all, one went to jail and the other lost custody of her kids. But it's noteworthy that Hilton's mom has ripped the McCain ad and called it a waste of money.

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Memphis, Tenn.: Howard, I constantly hear the media state that the candidates need to talk about issues, or what they see as solutions to critical issues. But Obama has spoken daily on energy, health care, and Iraq. Almost on a daily basis, I've watched CNN.live video (today for instance he has held a "town hall" where he outlined in detail his proposals on energy, and answered questions on a whole host of audience questions).

When will the media acknowledge what is going on right in front of their and our faces? One thing I've learned, is to not listen to the talking heads for my info, because they all have a bias toward stoking the the fire for show ratings. Each citizen needs to get the news from a wide variety of news outlets, and then use their critical thinking skills to evaluate it before coming to a conclusion.

Howard Kurtz: Which is why you need to read newspapers?

I can't argue with what you're saying; the past couple of days have seen an unusual degree of coverage of the candidates' positions on energy, but that has been more the exception than the rule, as the Paris/Britney flap underscored.

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O'Reilly: I am not a columnist or talk show host and I certainly don't get a direct feed from the White House on talking points -- but being alive and somewhat aware of news, events, etc., I could parrot the White House talking points on any issue. Just because there may not be a direct line between O'Reilly and the White House doesn't mean O'Reilly isn't a parroting tool.

Howard Kurtz: But that's a different issue. O'Reilly did break with the administration a few years ago in saying he had been wrong to support the Iraq invasion. But you'd hardly call him an outspoken critic of the White House.

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Washington: Howard, how hard is media trying not to make the Ivins's anthrax story a repeat of the Hatfill coverage? Has the media learned a lesson? Will they be able to practice the lesson learned? From everything I've read, it's a coin toss between Ivins killing himself because of feds were closing in and him killing himself because he couldn't see becoming the next Hatfill. If Hatfill had killed himself, the FBI would have declared victory and been carried off the field in glory for solving the crime.

Howard Kurtz: It seems to me the coverage has been fairly cautious. The FBI gathered a fair amount of circumstantial evidence against Ivins, including -- as The Post reports today -- that in 2001 he borrowed freeze-drying equipment that could convert wet cultures into dry spores. Then you have his therapist saying he was talking more recently about killing co-workers and that she sought a protective order against him. Does this amount to definitive proof that he was the anthrax killer? No. But the press hasn't said that it does.

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Re: Debate moderators: Howard, one thing immediately struck me about the moderators for the presidential debates: they're old -- really old. Sixty-eight, 71, 74: Those aren't Bingo numbers, those are their ages. Putting aside the knee-jerk complaint that old guys might be more supportive of McCain (I doubt it, not within the format), doesn't this make the debate process look outdated? Is there a chance in your mind that it might affect the focus of the debates, if only in terms of follow-up questions?

Howard Kurtz: I think the notion that they would favor McCain because they're in their seventies is silly. These are accomplished journalists who have moderated big-stakes debates before. Should the commission have thrown in someone a bit younger (other than Gwen Ifill for the vice presidential debate)? That would have been nice. But I don't know what the criteria were. Besides, if there's one thing Lehrer, Schieffer and Brokaw have in common, it's that they tend to make debates -- and interviews -- about the questions, not about them.

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Cache Valley, Utah: Hello Howard. Tony Fratto claims that "Ron Suskind makes a living from gutter journalism," and yet Suskind has a Pulitzer Prize while Fratto shovels manure for the the Bush White House. Who is more reliable at this point: Fratto or Suskind?

Howard Kurtz: Gutter journalism is certainly not a phrase I'd associate with Ron Suskind. One of his previous books, which the White House hated, was openly written with the former Treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill. The job of an administration spokesman is to knock down negative stories (or books), but I must say that is unusually harsh language.

Thanks for the chat, folks.

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