Howard Kurtz Tells Obama and Gore 'Stop Whining About Right-Wing Media'

Liberal media members defending Fox News and Rush Limbaugh are about as rare as Halley's Comet.

Yet that's what CNN's Howard Kurtz did Monday in a piece surprisingly titled "Obama, Gore, Stop Whining About Right-wing Media."

After a brief introduction, Kurtz relayed how former vice president Al Gore responded to Charlie Rose's recent question about whether there was "a very hostile environment for progressive ideas" by saying, "Fox News and right-wing talk radio...[T]he fact that we have 24/7 propaganda masquerading as news, it does have an impact."

"OK, Gore doesn't like Fox," Kurtz observed. "So he started what he hoped would be a liberal counterweight in Current TV, spent millions on such stars as Keith Olbermann, and ... the channel flopped. It was such a failure that he just sold it to Al Jazeera for an estimated personal take of $100 million."

"Whatever you think of Fox," Kurtz added, "Rupert Murdoch's network has been a financial success and Current TV was anything but. Isn't that the free market at work?"

Of course it is, but liberals like Gore don't believe in such a thing - at least not publicly. When it privately feathers their nest - much as Gore has been doing since leaving the White House! - capitalism is marvelous.

That's because he's a classic "Do As I Say, Not As I Do" liberal.

As for Obama's recent attacks on Fox and Limbaugh reported by NewsBusters last week, Kurtz had something to say about that as well.

"Now it's true that Fox or Limbaugh can boost or batter any lawmaker, and that they can help drive a controversy into the broader mainstream media," Kurtz noted. "But we're talking here about the president of the United States. He has an army, a navy and a bunch of nuclear weapons, not to mention an ability to command the airwaves at a moment's notice. And he's complaining about a cable channel and a radio talk-show host?"

Does seem pretty ridiculous, doesn't it?

"What liberals sometimes forget is that the conservative media took root because many Americans felt the fourth estate was too left-wing," Kurtz said. "ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, The New York Times and The Washington Post all strive for fairness, in my view, but there is little question that they have a social and cultural outlook that leans to the left. Collectively, they have far more weight than Fox, talk radio and The Wall Street Journal editorial page."

Actually, I would have added the word "combined" after "Wall Street Journal editorial page," but Kurtz's point was still a strong one.

The combined influence of Fox, talk radio, and other conservative media outlets though growing is still dwarfed by liberal entities.

Although Kurtz didn't mention it, most disturbing is the trend in recent years of news outlets intentionally misinforming the public with false reports and documents as well as selectively-edited videos making today's press as Fox News's Kirsten Powers recently observed akin to state-run media.

Even so, "Right-wing pundits make a convenient foil," Kurtz concluded, "but at times Obama seems to magnify their importance. After all, he's got the biggest bully pulpit of all."

Indeed he does, as well as virtually every media outlet cheering for his every deed whilst covering for his every misstep.

There likely hasn't been a president more beloved by the press in the modern era.

This is why Obama complaining about the media is akin to Yankee fans whining about there being too much money in baseball.