Fox News’ Howard Kurtz looked more like a Donald Trump water carrier than a media critic after smearing respected Univision anchor Jorge Ramos as a “heckler” and validating Trump’s decision to eject Ramos from a press conference.

You know that if Hillary Clinton treated any conservative journalist the way Trump did Ramos, Fox would be squawking like a flock of angry chickenhawks. Fox's disrespect toward Ramos has been not just appalling and unprofessional but bigoted.

Fox's Jesse Watters – who makes a career out of ambushing and trying to humiliate his subjects – apparently thinks Trump is deserved some kind of special respect. Or maybe it’s just that Ramos doesn’t deserve the same privileges Watters takes. On The Five last week, Watters smirked, “I think Ramos acted like an illegal alien and he got treated like one. He cut the line, was disruptive and was deported. And then, Trump let him back in. Isn’t that his (immigration) policy?”

As Kurtz almost gleefully noted, even Megyn Kelly tried to discredit Ramos by asking if he could “understand Trump’s side of it which is, ‘This is not the outlet I want to take these questions from ‘cause their mind is made up about me.’” I’d love to see Clinton say that to a Fox reporter sometime and see what Kelly’s reaction is then.

Media Matters has more:

On August 26, Fox contributor and Daily Caller editor-in-chief Tucker Carlson claimed that Ramos is “not a reporter,” but rather “an editorialist” and “an activist” whose questioning of Trump was not protected by the First Amendment. Fox host Bill O’Reilly complained that media were not “report[ing] this story honestly” before proceeding to lecture Ramos on journalistic etiquette and concluding that the Univision anchor was not “an objective purveyor” of the news.

The shamelessness here is breathtaking. But you’d expect Kurtz to be at least somewhat better. Alas, no. From Media Matters’ astute summary:

On the August 30 edition of Fox News’ Media Buzz, host Howard Kurtz used his program as a platform to continue Fox’s campaign against Ramos as well as its defense of the Republican frontrunner. Kurtz allowed conservative columnist Mercedes Schlapp to forward the unsubstantiated claim that conservative and mainstream media “both agree that Jorge Ramos was out of line.” Washington Examiner correspondent Susan Ferrechio accused Ramos of interrupting other reporters to get his point across, before Kurtz concluded that Ramos was acting like more like “a heckler” than a journalist:

It was Juan Williams who pointed out that Ramos is no ordinary journalist but the “Walter Cronkite” of Hispanic journalists and “he has a certain weight on issues of immigration.” Williams also noted that Fox News anchors have behaved similarly toward President Obama.

Kurtz moved on to show a clip that could have been sent to him by a Trump publicist – of Trump proving that he doesn’t wear a toupee. “How that for pushing back against the New York Times?” Kurtz said admiringly.

Then, he played a clip of President Obama refusing to take a question from Daily Caller reporter Neil Munro. Kurtz tried to suggest that liberals are hypocrites by asking if Williams was “more upset” by Munro than Ramos.

“By far!” Williams exclaimed. “Clearly, the president was speaking. …Donald Trump was in the middle of a press conference.”

Williams went on to explain that the background to Ramos’ confrontation was that he had requested an interview with Trump and that Trump had responded by putting Ramos’ phone number on the internet. “So there had been something like a little static that you guys hadn’t mentioned here,” Williams added.

Not to mention how Ramos had tried and failed to get an interview with Trump the polite way. As Trump goes around smearing Mexicans as rapists and drug dealers and talking about rounding up and deporting immigrants, is it any wonder that Ramos would feel it his obligation to press Trump to address his audience’s concerns?

What’s really shocking is that Kurtz didn’t seem to think that was of any consequence.

Watch it below, from the August 30 MediaBuzz.