His Job At Newsweak Is Probably Safe

Greasy-wigged non-journalist Howard Kurtz gets catty:

Meanwhile, the "winning" team--the pundits at MSNBC--got to pay a private call on the president on Tuesday. Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz, Lawrence O'Donnell and Al Sharpton were big Obama boosters during the campaign. (Arianna Huffington also joined the soiree.) A White House statement said the president had met with "leading progressives" to talk up his economic plan. Progressive they are indeed, but wouldn't they rather be known as journalists?

Given that they're a talk radio host, a former talk radio host, a civil rights activist and a Senate aide turned television scriptwriter -- and they're all pundits, as Kurtz himself writes -- why would they "rather be known as journalists?"

Did Howie the Putz sniff about journalistic integrity when President-Elect Obama met with partisan television pundits George Fwill (ABC), BoBo Brooks (PBS) and Billy Kristol (FOX)?  Did he whinily inquire as to whether FOX's Sean Hannity wished to be thought of as a journalist when W. Bush met with Hannity in the Oval Office?  Has the Putz ever lofted similar snark at anyone who ever spoke with a right-wing pol off the record (say, Tim Russert with Dick Cheney)?

The most amusing thing is that this comes at the end of Putz's post about the relationship between FOX News and Karl Rove, in which Rove is billed as a "political commentator" and in which the Putz says nary a word concerning American Crossroads.  Wouldn't Rove rather be known as a "political kingmaker?"