The election is over and Donald Trump has been elected president. But Fox News host Howard Kurtz can’t stop whining that Trump is some kind of a racial victim of the media.
On MediaBuzz, Kurtz complained that liberal pundits are being too “ugly” about Trump.
KURTZ: I understand that liberal commentators are upset that Donald Trump has just won the White House. What I don’t understand is why they are still saying ugly things in the wake of the election.
As if no conservatives are still saying ugly things after the election. Today, for example, Fox News gushed over a veteran for saying, “You crybabies are why Trump won!”
But just a few hours before Trump named racist, nationalist and probable wife-beater Steve Bannon to be his chief strategist and senior counselor, Kurtz attacked African Americans for thinking that Trump has something against people of color.
Kurtz noted that Jamelle Bouie, Slate’s chief political correspondent and an African American, wrote, “Donald Trump isn’t going to be president” on May 4th. Then, after the election, Bouie tweeted, "I didn’t quite understand how much white people hated us."
I didn’t quite understand how much white people hated us, or could at least live with that hate. Now I do.
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) November 9, 2016
Kurtz had a ridiculously ignorant and insensitive response.
KURTZ: What? Many white voters helped give Barack Obama two terms.
Next, Kurtz took a racial shot at CNN’s Van Jones, a former White House aide and also African American. Kurtz played a clip of Jones calling the election “a white-lash against a changing country, It was a white-lash against a black president, in part.”
KURTZ: A white-lash because your candidate lost? It’s fine to be critical of Trump but he did spend time reaching out to the black community.
Yes, “reaching out” to the black community by insulting them. After a long record of racial discrimination. Not counting Trump’s disgraceful attempts to delegitimize our first African American president.
Kurtz moved on to “media critic Jeff Jarvis,” supposedly, “a guy I respect.” Jarvis’ sin was to tweet this about Trump’s election:
— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) November 9, 2016
I'll say it: This is the victory of the uneducated and uninformed. Now more than ever that looks impossible to fix. They now rule.
— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) November 9, 2016
Kurtz lectured Jarvis:
KURTZ: Did you miss how much negative stuff the press dumped on Trump? … Sorry it’s really unattractive when you call voters dumb because you don’t agree with their decision.
Kurtz was not done. He similarly attacked writer Neal Gabler and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin’s misdeed was writing an open letter in Vanity Fair to his daughter and wife:
“[T]his is truly horrible … it is the first time that a thoroughly incompetent pig with dangerous ideas, a serious psychiatric disorder, no knowledge of the world and no curiosity to learn has [won].
And it wasn’t just Donald Trump who won last night—it was his supporters too. The Klan won last night. White nationalists. Sexists, racists and buffoons.”
Kurtz responded with another lecture:
KURTZ: The Klan won? That might have played in a TV drama but as a letter, it just seemed angry and overwrought. Aren’t liberals supposed to support tolerance and unity? Wouldn’t they have been furious if Hillary had won and conservatives kept trashing her? You can still fight for your beliefs but perhaps you should follow President Obama’s lead and be a bit more gracious toward the guy who won.
You mean “gracious” like Fox’s Bill O’Reilly was in 2012, when he claimed that Obama won re-election because non-whites “want stuff” and Obama “is going to give them things?” Or like Fox host Andrea Tantaros who argued that Obama won because women are “one-issue voters” who want free birth control? Or how about Fox’s enthusiastic promotion of Trump’s bogus birtherism?
If Kurtz really feels that presidents should be treated with respect, he should take a better look around his own glass house.
Watch Fox’s latest attempt to delegitimize (or worse) opposition to Trump below, from the November 13, 2016 MediaBuzz.
Fox News’ role is to put lipstick on conservative movements. Take their favorite topic of “political correctness” which, at its heart is a trend responding to the diversification of the workforce/schools. Much of the rise of talk radio haters like Rush was his dog whistle spews making him a hero to white listeners threatened by affirmative action.
