FishbowlDC's Rothstein Complains Howard Kurtz 'Pimp[s]' Daughter's Article

Howard Kurtz committed journalistic "incest" by tweeting an article written by his daughter for TheHill.com.

That is, according to Fishbowl DC editor, Betsy Rothstein, who ranked it a 6.5 out of 10 on the journalistic "incest scale":

Today Howie takes a quick break from self-pimping to pimp his daughter, Judy Kurtz, who writes the “In the Know” gossip column for The Hill.

“John McCain learns the meaning of a Shabbat elevator.” He links to this story by Judy.

As The Daily Beast‘s Washington Bureau Chief, Howard Kurtz has been known to write upwards of seven tweets to promo “Reliable Sources,” the Sunday morning program he hosts on CNN. In a sense, it’s touching that he’s taking a feather out of his pimp cap and trying to pass the magic on to his daughter. But there’s something unpalatable about it considering he wouldn’t do this for another journalist and, to our knowledge, has never given a nod to that column or most Capitol Hill gossip columns before.

This is our third Incest Desk item on this father-daughter duo. While some get upset when we link a father and daughter journo team for this feature, please understand we’re not saying there’s actual incest going on. It’s Washington incest — disturbing in its own right, but that’s all.

We’re giving it a 6.5 on the 1-10 Incest scale (1 is best, 10 is worst).

We reached out to The Hill for comment. They declined.

Good on The Hill. Such a despicable smear doesn't deserve being dignified with a response.

On another note, MediaBistro appears to have lower standards than MSNBC, which suspended then-anchor David Shuster for saying, on air, that the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign had "pimped out" daughter Chelsea.