Howard Kurtz: Lazy Media Relic

In typically lazy drive-by media fashion, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post selectively goes after Little Green Footballs for a couple of comments which the commenter himself quickly regretted while minimizing the vile hatred emanating from the Huffington Post.

In recent weeks, some of those who post comments on the conservative blog Little Green Footballs have said they wished that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had succeeded in what the Gitmo prisoner says was a plot to kill Jimmy Carter. And some who posted comments on the liberal Huffington Post have expressed regret that the suicide bomber at a military base in Afghanistan failed to take out the visiting Dick Cheney.

No corner of the Net is safe from this bile. The Washington Post's Web site has been grappling with a surge in offensive and incendiary comments.

The really gruesome stuff represents a tiny minority of those online. But is there a way of policing the worst stuff without shutting down robust debate?

The comments about Cheney at the Huffington Post included: "You can't kill pure evil." "If at first you don't succeed . . . " "Dr. Evil escapes again . . . damn." Founder Arianna Huffington wrote that "no one at HuffPost is defending these comments -- they are unacceptable and were treated as such by being removed."

The comments about Mohammed and Carter at Little Green Footballs included: "Can we furlough him -- just so he can realize the Carter plot? Please?" and "Even this schmuck had some good ideas."

The site's founder, Charles Johnson, wrote on Little Green Footballs that such comments "reflect only the opinions of the individuals who posted them" and doubted that they "rise to the level of hatred that showed up in Arianna's readers' Cheney-related comments."

Read for yourself: Here is the LGF thread Kurtz notes.

Kurtz doesn't even mention more recent comments this past Friday at Huffington Post about Tony Snow.

Pajames Media notes Huffington was sanitizing history.

Michelle Malkin had Assassination chic, Cheney edition.

Just last week, there was yet another deluge of hatred toward Cheney. Does this comment sound rational?

I would like to take a sledge hammer to Cheneys foot......then tell the fucking terrorist bastard ''now you know what if feels like'. Then shove a .45 in his mouth and blow his fucking brains out.

By: PissedoffVietVet on March 20, 2007 at 06:57pm

Why doesn't Howrd Kurtz mention this? Is he too lazy?

Again, I do not minimize the fact that some commenters at LGF have on occasion stepped over the line. But to even make a comparison between commenters there and at the Huffington Post is intellectually dishonest.

UPDATE: Charles Johnson fires back. More also today from Michelle Malkin.