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 "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, Dec. 23, at Noon ET to take your questions and comments.

A transcript follows

Media Backtalk transcripts archive

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Baltimore, Md.: Howard: I wonder if you saw David Carr's piece in the New York Times about the Tri-City News, the New Jersey weekly that is prospering while having no presence at all on the Web.

Newspaper Shuns Web, and Thrives (The New York Times, Dec. 21)

While this publication is scarcely the Post or the New York Times, the publisher's assertion is interesting -- he says that he has prospered by not spending money on Web technology while simultaneously making his display ad rates reasonable enough that he has no problem selling space.

He says of his own newspaper habits that he looks at dailies on the Web and never bothers reading the sites' ads. (Ouch!)

Howard Kurtz: If it works for a 10,000-circulation paper in Jersey, great, but for most newspapers it makes no sense. Why would you want to build a moat around your product? Sure, in the short term, more people (in the D.C. area) would probably buy The Washington Post if they couldn't read it online, but millions of others around the world would lose access to Post journalism. In the longer term, where competition for eyeballs online is going to be the name of the game, withdrawing from the Web would be suicidal. And you would be giving up the ability to cover breaking news, post video, put up blogs and have chats like this. That way lies oblivion.

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Avon Park, Fla.: Even though the line between journalism and commentary is blurring, I don't think that what Mika Brzeznski does is a major problem. She doesn't present a clear ideological position on issues and then does news updates. She talks more about how newsmakers handle situations more than the substance of what they say. By the way, has their show moved to Washington. They've been doing the show from there the last week.

washingtonpost.com: Mika's Second Act (Post, Dec. 22)

Howard Kurtz: I don't see it as a major problem, but Mika herself says she had to step out of her old correspondent's role to offer more opinions and often debate her pal Scarborough. "Morning Joe" remains based in New York, but Joe sometimes does it from here, where he has a home, and Ms. Brzezinski has been visiting in recent days (as she was during last week's Ritz-Carlton robbery incident).

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Media Notes holiday schedule?: Howard,

Is your Media Notes online column going on holiday hiatus? If so, when will you be back?

Howard Kurtz: Yes, I'm taking a little break after a long year. Be back the Monday after New Year's.

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Port Ewen, N.Y.: Howard, In general, I like to listen or watch a variety of news outlets to avoid bias. I especially like C-SPAN. Recently, I found Rush L. on the radio, and although I have heard a lot about him, I never actually listened to him. I was sickened by much of what I heard, as he trashed education, the arts and almost every topic he covered. I am going to assume that his show is not considered news, but am I right? CNN, MSNBC and Fox are all news shows that have guests who discuss their views on policy. At what point does a show cross the line? Also, is there a left wing show comparable to Rush L.?

Howard Kurtz: Rush's show is pure commentary, and with 600 stations carrying it, is quite popular. What you get is his take on just about everything. There are certainly liberal shows that are all about the host's views--Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller--but no one is close to Limbaugh in terms of audience.

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Reston, Va.: When I saw that the New York Times printed a bogus letter from the "mayor" of Paris, I wondered...did Sarah Palin get a job at the NYT? All the news that's fit to print, indeed.

Howard Kurtz: I was very surprised that the Times fell for that hoax, given the checking that most papers do to make sure letters are authentic. The mayor's office in Paris can't be that hard to find.

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San Anselmo, Calif.: Why aren't the "Woodwards" and "Bernsteins" going after the executives at the financial institutions? Are we (citizens) supposed to be satisfied with the burning of "Blago" who is not even related to the worst financial crisis the world has ever faced?

Howard Kurtz: There has actually been some terrific reporting in recent months. To cite two examples just from Sunday, The Post ran a piece on the difficulties of reining in executive pay, leading with Angelo Mozilla of Countrywide Financial, who got options of $121 million last year alone. Then his firm blew up and had to be taken over--nice job.

The New York Times carried a story attempting to tie the mortgage crisis to the Bush deregulatory philosophy. The piece noted that the administration had fired the head of a government watchdog agency overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on the day he issued a report about how they could default on their debt and trigger a market meltdown.

But--and this is my main beef with the coverage in recent years--when that official was fired in 2003, the NYT and WP ran short pieces inside their business sections, and both led with the naming of his replacement. Some good financial reporting was done over the years, but all too often it didn't make Page 1 or the network news, thereby vanishing into the ether.

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washingtonpost.com: NYT says Paris mayor letter a fake (Reuters, Dec. 22)

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Water main break coverage: Channel 4 reported, both on the screen and by voice, that a "25 foot high" wall of water bore down on the cars and that "135 million gallons of water per minute" flowed down River Road. I find both these figures to be outlandish. How can they report these figures without using common sense to wonder if they are really are true? Of course, I could be wrong, but 135 million gallons per minute seems awfully high.

Howard Kurtz: The reports I saw said the wall of water was 5 feet high, but of course, that was enough to trap a number of people in submerged cars.

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Evanston, Ill.: Hey Howie, the pool report the other day said that all the reporters following Obama turned downed an offer from the president-elect to drink on his tab. Is the press corp really that lame?

Howard Kurtz: It was a little bit of banter between Obama and the reporters (who have drawn hardship duty in Hawaii for the next two weeks, which, it's fair to say, beats staying in Waco). I don't think the press corps took Obama's offer seriously. And if they had, they'd be getting hosed as drunken stooges for getting liquored up at the president-elect's expense.

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Menomonie, Wisc.:

While I enjoy the online newspapers, I hope print newspapers never become extinct, either. After all, with print newspapers, it does not cost you $4,000 if you spill coffee on it!

Howard Kurtz: That's a talking point for newspapers that I've never heard before. You must have an expensive computer.

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New Leadership: Things like these terrific chats are what made me a WaPo reader. What will the change of leadership at WaPo.com mean for the chats? Also, put me down as someone who is very willing to watch/read creative online advertising (Salon.com has very interesting ads from major brands such as Lexus) and willing to pay for the kind of content I can only get from the Post.

Howard Kurtz: You know, the more I hear about people willing to pay for Post content online, the more I wonder whether there shouldn't be a button for doing so--perhaps through volunteer payments that would involve a few extras, such as more extensive searching of the archives, or having bloggers like me come to your house with a thank-you card.

I don't expect the chats to vanish; indeed, some other papers seem to be following our lead on that. As long as they continue to draw traffic, I believe they will remain.

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Crystal City, Va.: With most of the focus on Blago, the transition, Minnesota recount, and a little bit on Rangel's troubles has the media given up on investigating Sen. Dodd and others who got sweetheart mortgage deals while they were supposed to be overseeing the mortgage industry?

Howard Kurtz: You mean there haven't been congresional hearings on this??

My sense is that most of the facts about Dodd and others came out at the time, although debate remains as to how much of a break he got. He certainly was on a VIP list. But I remember some lawmakers saying they didn't even know they were on such a list.

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Washington, D.C.: Has there been any information as to who sent in the bogus Paris mayor letter? I read it on-line before it was exposed as a hoax, and I remember thinking that it sounded very odd -- why would the mayor of Paris write in on THAT subject? I'm guessing that who wrote it must have fallen off his/her computer chair in surprise and sheer delight when the Times actually did fall for the punking.

Howard Kurtz: I should probably go to Paris and investigate this, don't you think?

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Arlington, Va.: Which newspapers are doing the best job of integrating their print and online operations? And do you expect the Post will take major steps in this direction in the next year?

Howard Kurtz: The Post has already announced that it is combining its Arlington-based Web operation with the D.C. newsroom. In fact, this was mentioned again in a story today on the resignation of Jim Brady as executive editor of washingtonpost.com (a very savvy guy who deserves a good deal of credit for the site's success in recent years). It probably made sense to let the Web site grow up on its own and experiment with various digital features, but the trend now is toward unified newsrooms. Writing stories for the Web used to be seen in the Post newsroom as something extra that you did to help out the site; now it's at the core of what we do as a continuous news operation.

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Executive Pay: Not that I think executives deserve the outlandish pay some are receiving, but I think the media could do a better job reporting on executive compensation. While it may be a popular thing to report that an executive of Countrywide received an option award with an estimated value of $121 million, shouldn't part of the story be that the options are most likely so underwater that they are worthless?

To not do so paints a picture that the executives received huge sums of cash to run the company(ies) into the ground. I have only seen one story -- a story about Fannie compensation -- that explained that a good deal of this excessive compensation is lost when the company(ies) fortunes turn south.

Howard Kurtz: The bonuses and options are being cut back now, or are worthless in the current market (Countrywide isn't even a freestanding company anymore, having been taken over by Bank of America). But huge amounts were paid out over the years, and some critics thought that encouraged executives to take risks to pump up profits, since the better the short-term bottom line, the more than flowed into their personal bank accounts.

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Subscriptions: Howie, I just subscribed to two of the best print magazines available for almost nothing. $20 for three years of Fortune. $50 for two years of The New Yorker. The prices reeled me in, and I get the idea, but could you explain why I'm getting such a great deal?

Howard Kurtz: In part because the magazine business is hurting right now. But even for $20 or $25 bucks, your subscription enables editors to tell advertisers (who are the main source of their revenue) that they've got a stable audience that will continue at a certain level for the next couple of years.

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Tri-City News: Hi, Howard. I think this paper is serving a specialty niche community, the northern N.J. shore. Their target is some year-round residents, plus the summer vacation hordes, and places to spend their tourist dollars. They even list their advertising rates on their Web site.

There are so many Websites that already offer video, streaming video/radio, chats, etc., that they blend into a sea of noise.

These folks have decided to remain small and serve their community. You can fold their newpaper, and take it with you to the beach. If it gets wet or lost, you can pick up another copy.

My guess is that when it stops being fun, they will sell to a larger organization with a Web presence.

Howard Kurtz: More power to them. Anything that keeps a paper afloat and isn't illegal, I'm in favor of. I'm just saying it makes no sense as a strategy for mid-sized and larger papers. You want to be where the action is, where more people are increasingly getting their information.

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Chats: I try to follow the news as much as possible, but what really stimulates my interest are these chats. They really have changed my perspective on "news" (no longer just a long, boring memo). If the Post Web site was completely free, except you had to pay for the chats, I would definitely be willing to fork out a little money.

Howard Kurtz: I'll give you an address to send me the check.

The chats are fun, but they're also important in that it lets you hear from Washington Post journalists and gives us some insight into what's on the minds of readers. But there is incredible resistance to charging for anything on the Web. The NYT, you may recall, charged non-print subscribers 50 bucks a year to read its columnists and get some other features, and while it brought it some cash, the Times dropped the idea in favor of showcasing some of its best writers to a broader audience. The columnists hated it because it cut their readership and no one was linking to them.

Speaking of journalistic trends, The Post is reporting:

"Editors from The Washington Post and Baltimore Sun said today that they have agreed to begin sharing certain stories, photos and other news content."

That's fascinating because the Post and Sun have always competed for circulation in the counties between Baltimore and D.C.'s Maryland suburbs.

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Falls Church, Va.: I've been suggesting to different chat hosts over the years that there be a "tip jar" on the Website -- I'd put in $10 a month!

Howard Kurtz: I will forward the idea to the proper authorities. I think it would make a nice symbolic statement that the extra content is worth it.

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St. Paul, Minn.: Howard:

Thanks for doing this and Happy Holidays from snow country. Seems to me there has been surprisingly little national coverage of the tight recount in our little Senate race in Minnesota. Who do you think that is? As it currently stands, the final result may be the closest finish for a Senate race ever recorded.

Howard Kurtz: There's been more coverage than you might think. But as the thing has dragged on, with constant challenges, recountings and discovery of missing ballots, it's become hard to follow. I think the attitude of most people outside Minnesota is, wake me when either Franken or Coleman wins.

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Mornin' Joe/Mika: I have to say I really enjoy their show in the morning. I think Mika is coming out more which is good, because she used to sort of wilt in the face of Joe's outrage. In fact, during the election, I had to take a break from them. But as a progressive person, politically, I think their show is especially fair, with little of the mock outrage and anger, and far less use of "talking points" than I find with most shows. I find Joe to be pretty fair, if not a tad overly-critical at times...but I am sure I am overly-critical of those on the "right" at times too. It's a great format, and if they keep things going and improving, I'd bet they would eventually be #1. It's a show you can watch in the morning, without getting agitated!

Howard Kurtz: The campaigns obviously thought Joe & Mika were fair, because they kept putting their top people on. As a former Republican congressman, Scarborough makes no secret of being a conservative, but he's also been repeatedly critical of the GOP in the last two years, and he lets people make their case. Sometimes he even lets Mika finish her thought!

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Howard Kurtz: I should probably go to Paris and investigate this, don't you think? : Publish your editor's e-mail, and we'll lobby him/her, like we do for Milbank all the time (wink)

Howard Kurtz: They're all on vacation this week.

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Washington, D.C.: What is your opinion of this stuff with Fitzgerald meddling in the political processes of the Illinois legislature now? He has asked that their impeachment panel not consider criminal allegations against Blago. He does this after asking Obama to hold a report that clears his administration for an additional week. And of course, the Tribune held a news story for weeks at his request. Then the arrest included a press conference where the prosecutor was publicly fishing for evidence while the governor was trying to make bail. Why must heaven and earth come to a standstill while the federal prosecutor builds his case against a politician that he has been investigating for half a decade?

Howard Kurtz: It's not unusual for a prosecutor to ask a legislative committee to hold off until a criminal investigation is wrapped up, and witnesses under investigation often refuse to testify or wind up pleading the Fifth. As for the Trib, Fitzgerald made the argument that for the paper to publish news of the wiretaps would blow up the probe (and indeed, the investigation ended a few days after the story was eventually published early this month). Law enforcement officials often make such requests when there's an ongoing investigation; sometimes they are granted and sometimes not, depending on the situation.

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Paying for on-line content: I'm sure that the business managers at your paper will do the research and find out that the NYT had to stop its experiment in charging for some of its columnists because of low interest. I declined to pay, and I had no problem whatsoever getting all the "for subscribers only" columns through secondary sources. At worse, I had to wait a day or two. Sorry, but I'd do the same if WaPo started to charge for access to some of its content.

Howard Kurtz: Actually, the Times got a surprising amount of cash during that two-year period. But I'm not suggesting that The Post charge for content that is free, at least not now. I'm saying perhaps for 10 or 20 bucks a year readers could get some extras that aren't available now.

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The Post-Sun: Fascinating idea. You think the Post could put out regional editions partnered with the Baltimore Maryland and Richmond Times-Dispatch?

Howard Kurtz: I don't think that's a great idea. Competition is healthy. But in an era of limited resources, it makes no sense for us to try to report extensively in Baltimore or Richmond, or for those papers to try to match The Post's reporting on the federal government or overseas. Here's more from the story:

"Exclusive stories will generally not be shared between papers. Also out of bounds are articles about Maryland state government and University of Maryland athletics, both of which are competitive subjects to each paper."

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Baltimore, Md.: Re the Post and the Sun sharing content: The Sun got a new editor yesterday and he's the gbuy who started their free tab, B. Believe me, after what the Tribune has done to the quality of the Sun in the past couple years, people in Baltimore will only benefit from getting Post content. I frankly don't see what the Post will get -- 80 percent of the Sun is now wire service copy, or copy from the LA Times, Chicago Tribune or Orlando Sentinel.

Howard Kurtz: Well, we'll have to see. The Post had a similar, limited agreement with the Wall Street Journal a couple of years ago in which we took a couple of foreign business stories each day in exchange for some of our content. Rupert ended the deal when he bought the WSJ.

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WaPo online content: I remember when WaPo and other papers first started their web presence that we were promised more content than could be delivered in print. From this, I expected things like additional photos that wouldn't fit in the dead tree version. Instead, it seems that the online version of stories often contain fewer pictures than the printed versions. Any idea how come?

And for what it's worth, I'm a daily subscriber who reads the online Post every week day.

Howard Kurtz: When our photographers take the pictures, there are often more of them online. But when the photos are from elsewhere, there are often rights fees and other limitations on what we can use.

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Washington, D.C.: washingtonpost.com has a pay-per-article news archive that anyone who is feeling generous can use. It offers variously priced news article packages. I usually buy more articles than I need and then the access expires before I've used them all, but no complaints.

Howard Kurtz: Right. So maybe heavy users of that feature could pay a single annual fee instead of on a case-by-case basis. But hey, I don't run the place. I'm just a content provider.

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Online: How about if I tip enough so that you can go to Paris. Then you can send Ms. Kornblut over with the thank-you note.

Howard Kurtz: That will cost you more.

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Mika finishing her thought: Yea...that is what I like least about it...he tends to cut her off, and she tends to let him get away with it. I saw her say something like "you see the name of the show" but still, he should check that a bit...he doesn't do it to the males, and he doesn't do it to Peggy Noonan either. But I also think Mika needs to step it up a notch to be heard, and to get her points across.

Howard Kurtz: Mika seems quite happy with their arrangement, based on my reporting last week, or she wouldn't be spending another two hours a day with the guy in a radio studio. Sometimes she plays along for comic effect, you know.

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New York: Another vote for the tip jar. For the Post, the Times, etc., to provide all this free content on the Web is just nuts. I pay for salon.com, and I'll bet millions of others spend plenty on Web content. Why don't we suspend the FTC for a week and let the newspapers get together, figure out a way to control their give-away of content on the Web, and work this out? The greater evil is that we lose investigative journalism in all the major papers, which destroys our entire constitutional system.

Howard Kurtz: You have identified what's at stake here. We all want to have our cake and eat it too. But if newspapers can't figure out a way to support their large staffs, even at a smaller level -- and I'm not dismissing the important work done by some bloggers -- you can kiss a lot of investigative reporting goodbye. Remember The Post's expose of the shoddy conditions at Walter Reed? That took two reporters months to complete, and you're never assured in advance that the story will pan out. Most papers these days are hard pressed to spare a couple of reporters for any length of time.

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Kansas City, Mo.: I'm seeing the $10 a year magazine subscriptions also and have to wonder what kind of response the Post would get if they charged people $12 a year ($1 a month!) for online access. You already have to sign in and while there are a lot of sites I wouldn't pay, I would pay for the Post.

Howard Kurtz: I appreciate the expressions of support, folks, but experience has shown that readership would plummet if we adopted even a $10 subscription fee, and that's not a good advertising strategy. Also keep in mind that the Web has turned The Post into a national and international force despite the fact that the print product is sold in only two states and the District.

Thanks for the chat and happy holidays.

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