Howie Kurtz ... Media Meat Puppet

If there's one person in the media/political swamp in Washington D.C. that needs to get out of the beltway, it's Howie. Consider this article he wrote yesterday for the Post : The Junkies Network. Mr. Kurtz gives a run down on why MSNBC's rating are improving, but as usual Howie misses the mark. In this case he didn't even hit the target. From reading the article one would assume that viewers are tuning in to see Andrea Mitchell grappling with a complete sentence live on the air. Or the appearances of Brian Williams and the other stars from the mother ship. All of these developments have happened this fall in the run-up to the elections, and in Howie's mind that's surely the reason that the ratings at the #3 cabal news network have started to rise. Only in the 11th paragraph does he get to the real reason the network's fortunes have improved, and this is how it's introduced : Some of the election coverage was anchored by Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, and Keith Olbermann, whose show "Countdown" has become a nightly feast of Bush-bashing. Nice huh ? The one person who has moved the numbers for the whole network gets billing under Joe Scarborough. To read Kurtz it's the other folks that are carrying poor Keith on their backs. Mr. Kurtz continues : His program could become a model for the newscast of the future," Abrams says. "It's a mix of straight news reporting with lighter fare and occasionally with some opinion." Some opinion? Not only does Olbermann steer clear of conservative guests, he has added an occasional "special comment" segment in which he recently urged President Bush to apologize to American troops for starting and mishandling the war, going on to suggest "you are not honest" and "you are far more stupid than the worst of your critics has suggested." See ... in Howie's world Bush hasn't made any mistakes, and if we'd all just swallow what's being spooned out to us .... everything would be just peachy. In Howie's world the model of "Balance" rules. The right-wing pit bull and the liberal straw man. The truth and a lie. In Howies world this is the model the news should follow. Why ? Cause Fox said it should. But, back to Howie's big miss in his piece. The numbers have been on the move at MSNBC for some time now. Want to follow along ? Bookmark these guys : TV Newser The numbers began to spike after Keith delivered his Aug. 30th Special Comment. To read Kurtz they are just a mere curiosity and not worth looking at. But on the other coast and away from D.C. ..... CW Nevius writing in the San Franciso Cronicle wrote : "The result has been a cultural earthquake." See, Kurtz can't write about the central figure in MSNBC's turn around, that would give credit where it's due. Just like Howard Dean didn't have anything to do with all those governors and state houses moving into the Democratic column on Nov. 7th. Because as others have said before, Washington isn't the seat of our national government, it's an 8th grade student council meeting ..... And the popular kids just aren't going to let anybody into the "click". ADD YOUR " ATTA BOYS " RIGHT IN HERE :