Howard Kurtz on Sunday actually asked if right-wing pundits are hoping for another successful terrorist attack against our nation in order to harm President Obama politically?
Potentially even worse, this disgraceful question was posed to a far-left leaning blogger who certainly was going to say "Yes."
Discussing the media's coverage of the Times Square car bomb attempt with his guests on CNN's "Reliable Sources," Kurtz asked if conservative commentators risk "looking a little churlish if they complain about a bomb that didn't go off?"
What ensued will likely make a lot of those commentators as well as NewsBusters readers quite upset (video follows with transcript and commentary):
HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: David Frum, there's plenty of room for criticism of how the Administration handles these things, but do conservative commentators risk losing a little, looking a little churlish if they complain about a bomb that didn't go off?
DAVID FRUM: I think that is a part of an inherent bias in the media toward catastrophism and short-term views. I think the long-term view like for the past decade, what you see is under President Bush and President Obama, we have had steadily accumulating success against terrorism.
KURTZ: Good news isn't news?
FRUM: Good news isn't news, and because, if you have to take a bit of a view back and say, you know, if you look at the period from 1990 to 2001, each terrorist plot, even the ones that are defeated, is more sophisticated, more elaborate, more people, more moving parts than the one before. Since 9/11, each plot less sophisticated, fewer moving parts, until finally you're in a situation where people make bad bombs because they can't communicate. This is what success in the War on Terror looks like and that is a message I think that the American people most need to hear.
KURTZ: And they're certainly not hearing from the media. [...]
KURTZ: We can argue about Miranda rights, and we can argue about how Shahzad ended up on the no-fly list and yet he was able to get on a plane. You know, that's all legitimate. But you think some pundits on the right, you were starting to criticize before, are rooting for Obama to fail on terrorism?
JOHN ARAVOSIS, AMERICABLOG: Well, sure. I don't think there's any question...
KURTZ: That would suggest they want a successful terrorist attack.
Sheesh.
Let's start with the first question: after three attempted terrorist attacks on our nation, with thankfully only one -- Ft. Hood -- ending up "successful," shouldn't ALL Americans, including members of the media, be complaining about such things?
It's not like the Department of Homeland Security or law enforcement officials had anything whatsoever to do with stopping the failed Christmas Day attack OR Faisal Shahzad's inability to set off that bomb last Saturday.
As such, it's PREPOSTEROUS of Kurtz to think ANYONE would look churlish complaining about another attempt to massacre Americans that went completely undetected by those responsible for protecting our nation.
As for right-wing pundits hoping Obama's terrorism efforts fail thereby leading to a successful attack on our nation that harms the President politically, Kurtz should be ASHAMED for asking such a question.
Conservative commentators aren't wishing for innocent Americans to die in order to make it easier for the GOP to win back Congress and the White House.
This kind of implication is what is expected from far-left leaning websites like Aravosis's and Daily Kos, but NOT from a mainstream columnist and television anchor.
Sadly, when Kurtz reads this criticism as well as hopefully others, I don't imagine he'll agree.
