Although Fox News describes Howard Kurtz as a veteran media reporter, Kurtz’ “reporting” on Fox & Friends’ pre-scripted interviews with then-EPA head Scott Pruitt showed either stunning incompetence or a willing avoidance of the facts.
Last week, The Daily Beast caught Fox & Friends coordinating interview topics and questions with Pruitt, while he was head of the Environmental Protection Agency, on more than one occasion. When caught, Fox claimed that this was “not standard practice whatsoever” and that some unnamed employees would be disciplined in in some secret way.
Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan noted that “not standard practice whatsoever” was “putting it mildly.” She attempted to find out Fox News’ ethics policy, the exact standard or practice that was breached and what disciplinary measures had been taken. Fox News executives stonewalled.
That seems to be way more digging than Kurtz did, despite being his description by Fox News as a “veteran journalist and renowned media reporter.” On his MediaBuzz show Sunday, Kurtz seemed to base all his “reporting” on The Daily Beast’s. He addressed the matter only briefly near the end of the hour:
KURTZ: During some appearances on Fox & Friends, former EPA chief Scott Pruitt was given the questions in advance and his team sometimes suggested the topics, according to emails provided to The Daily Beast.
Wait a minute! Sometimes? How many times? Didn’t Kurtz make any attempt to find out? The Daily Beast stumbled onto the emails via a Freedom of Information Act by The Sierra Club. It seems entirely likely that there are more such exchanges between Fox and other government officials. And what’s this “according to emails provided to The Daily Beast?” Did Kurtz not do any of his own reporting seeing as how it comes from his own network?
If Kurtz did do any actual investigating, he kept it to himself. He also never said that there had been a violation of Fox News policy, standards or ethics.
KURTZ: Fox News says it has disciplined the staffers involved but it is not disclosing what action was taken. A network spokesperson said, “This is not standard practice whatsoever and the matter is being addressed internally with those involved.”
Look, it’s not unusual for television producers to respond to pitches or to provide broad topic areas to make sure a guest is prepared to respond. But providing questions and scripts in advance is a journalistic breach and should be absolutely out of bounds.
Well, at least he said that much. But then Kurtz quickly made an effort to suggest that this was indeed an anomaly:
KURTZ: By the way, it was also last year that Fox’s Ed Henry grilled Pruitt on some of the financial problems that later led to his ouster.
But as I wrote about that interview in April, Henry’s “grilling” was almost certainly the result of an order from on high. Fox News personnel, especially not Trump sycophant Henry, don’t just get tough on a Trump cabinet member out of journalistic principles. “His contentious approach was almost surely approved, and probably directed, by a higher up,” I wrote at the time. Henry even gratuitously quoted, on the air, some of Pruitt’s criticisms of Donald Trump.
Sure enough, it turned out there was an effort by “senior White House aides” and Chief of Staff John Kelly to oust Pruitt. My theory was and is that Rupert Murdoch was part of that effort.
In any event, Pruitt resigned in July, about three months later. According to The New York Times, the final nail in Pruitt’s coffin was a report that he had asked Trump to fire then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions so that Pruitt could take the job.
It’s quite possible that Henry’s interview was one of the “straws” before the final one. But it’s almost certain that good journalism had nothing to do with it.
Watch Kurtz’ cluelessness below, from the December 2, 2018 MediaBuzz.