Kurtz Tells WaPo's Milbank 'You're Just Annoyed Because Breitbart' Got Credit For Weinergate

June 12th, 2011 6:01 PM

The Andrew Breitbart-hating media certainly got its comeuppance Monday when Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) finally admitted that he had indeed been sending lewd pictures to young women via his Twitter account.

Sensing that he was seated with one such press member, CNN's Howard Kurtz on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" told a mopey Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, "You're just annoyed because Breitbart, who doesn't like the liberal media, has actually gotten some credit on this story" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: But coming back to Breitbart, I've been critical of him in some other contexts, the Shirley Sherrod story for one. But on this story, did he do anything wrong?

AMY HOLMES, AMERICA's RADIO NEWS NETWORK: I don't think he did. I think he went with the news. And clearly, the story blew up.

DANA MILBANK, WASHINGTON POST: Up to the point where he apparently was showing this picture to Opie and Anthony.

KURTZ: Oh, he was, because I've seen the video.

MILBANK: Right. So --

KURTZ: And let's just explain to people, Opie and Anthony have a satellite radio show, kind of a raunchy show. And Breitbart, who made a great point of saying he was not going to release this -- you know, it's a naked picture of Weiner below the waist -- was showing it around in sort of a frat room atmosphere.

Now, I take Breitbart at his word that he didn't know that somebody on the Opie and Anthony set was going to snap a picture of the picture.

MILBANK: Well, then he's never been involved in that show before, because that's just the sort of thing that they do there. So I just don't buy that at all.

HOLMES: Actually, one of the co-hosts was not pleased that this photo was put up.

MILBANK: That was a way of getting it out there and letting people know that it's out there without doing it.

KURTZ: You're just annoyed because Breitbart, who doesn't like the liberal media, has actually gotten some credit on this story.

MILBANK: No, no. I think up until that point, it was right on. I think that was completely over the top.

No, what Milbank thinks was completely over the top is that organizations like his were once again scooped by a conservative new media outlet. Fortunately for him, he's in good company.

On the other hand, it was nice to see Howie point out what was likely obvious to every conservative watching his program.

Of course, Milbank wouldn't have been at all annoyed if Weiner had an "R" next to his name, and his paper probably wouldn't have been so slow in covering his misdeeds.

But that goes without saying, doesn't it?