Kurtz on Malkin

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Libby Trial coverage for a brief message on A Hard Right Punch, Howard Kurtz's profile of Michelle Malkin.

It's not a bad portrait--Kurtz has done a decent job overall. But it's one of those pieces that looks better the farther away you are from it. Hot Air's See-Dubya captures some of this in his post, WaPo's Kurtz Profiles Lonely Outspoken Conservative Who Brings It All On Herself.

It's not that bad, but here are some problems:

1. Kurtz vastly downplays the extent of the AP's collapse in standards in the Jamil Hussein/multiple exploding mosques story. AP reported six people had been burned alive and four mosques had been blown up. Um, no. AP international editor John Daniszewski's retort--"It was a moving story"--is amusingly self-excusing only if you know that AP just plain misrepresented what happened--but there's no way to tell that from Kurtz, or to know that the story typifies the AP's questionably sourced and exaggerated tales of carnage.  "We quoted people saying [the victims] had been bombed and burned" says Mr. multilevel fact-checking AP editor.

And to say the Iraqi government "confirmed Hussein was a police official" doesn't do justice to Hussein's evasive and cagey identity and still unanswered questions about his reliability as a source.

2. Kurtz leaves the impression that there's something exceptional about You Tube pulling down an anti-Islamist video that Malkin posted. But You Tube routinely removes anti-Islamist videos. Kurtz's brief anecdote hypes the story line that Malkin is a bomb-thrower. (Oddly enough they have no problem permitting anti-Western and specifically anti-Christian videos. Just ask Nick Gisburne, an atheist who posted a series of subdued anti-Christian features and was astonished when his very first criticism of Islam was spiked.)

3. Kurtz drops the ball in his account of the bikini photoshop incident. Wonkette didn't just post that image, he/she (I forget who was running it at the time) strongly implied it was a genuine photo, supposedly showing Malkin to be a hypocrite about decent public standards. When Kurtz quotes Ken Layne as saying "people send us dumb stuff all the time and if it makes us laugh we post it," it doesn't clarify what Wonkette had really done.

And on the nitpicky side when Kurtz suggests "no slight can go unanswered," if that were true Malkin would have to launch several new blogs devoted exclusively to rebutting attacks. One for racist slights, one for sexual innuendo, one for being the remote-controlled robot of her husband, etc.

Other than that, great job, Howie!

No, seriously, taken as a whole, it's not an unreasonable portrait. But like I say, stand on the other side of the room and you'll think better of it.

Update: I question the timing! Former Edwards Campaign Implosion Consultant Melissa McEwan back home at Shakespeare's Sister:

..the WaPo features a huge piece by Howard Kurtz on Michelle Malkin and how unfair it is that she's subjected to attacks from lefties.

Obviously, I absolutely 100% believe that anyone who does things like send threats or publish addresses is a scumbag, no matter to whom they're doing it. But considering Malkin herself has published people's addresses, and considering she was just part of the rightwing smear machine that accused me of anti-Catholic bigotry with no bloody evidence, not just on her blog but on The O'Reilly Factor, you'll have to forgive my incredulity at the tone and timing of this story.

You know, some things never go out of style. Classic Coke, the '65 Mustang, and I Question The Timing.