New York Times public editor Arthur Brisbane got some unexpected public criticism when he wrote a column asking if journalists should be “truth vigilantes,” calling out politicians who make blatant distortions. Since many people think this is the dictionary definition of journalism, Brisbane was roundly mocked for even asking the question. On CNN’s Reliable Sources, Brisbane defended his piece to Howard Kurtz and why he even questioned the responsibility of the press.

Appearing on CNN’s Newsroom, Howard Kurtz criticized his fellow network colleague John King for his “open marriage” question to Newt Gingrich. “I must say that I thought it was a misstep for John King, who is a fair and seasoned and balanced reporter, to make that the very first question of the debate.”

On CNN’s Reliable Sources today, Howard Kurtz examined the latest details in the story of comedian Stephen Colbert and his former Super PAC. Many would dismiss his intent to run for president as a joke, but Kurtz wondered if there was an element of journalism in Colbert’s methods, for by highlighting the absurdity of the Super PAC process on his show week after week, Colbert is bringing more attention to how the world of politics changed after the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.

On CNN’s Reliable Sources, host Howard Kurtz questioned why the news media took so long to scrutinize Ron Paul‘s controversial newsletters.

Politico‘s Ben Smith left many media heads askew in confusion when he announced that he was leaving the major political publication for Buzzfeed, previously most popularly known for its vast library of adorable animal videos. Howard Kurtz was certainly among those that didn’t see anything about this media move coming, and naturally had a few questions for the new editor in chief on his program yesterday.

Tim Tebow is a football player very well-known for his Christian beliefs. And recently, he has begun to get some flack in the media for silent prayers after scoring a touchdown and for other public displays of his faith. You’ll recall that he filmed an ad for Focus on the Family that took a very powerful stand against abortion that aired during the Super Bowl. On Reliable Sources today, Howard Kurtz examined media coverage of Tebow and how much of it was being influenced by religion as opposed to sports.

In recent years, conservative commentator David Frum has taken to criticizing his own side for its relationship with conservative media outlets like Fox News, and on Reliable Sources today, Frum criticized the network for creating its own political reality, as well as the Republican party for shaping itself around the influence of the conservative media bubble.

On CNN’s Reliable Sources, Howard Kurtz lauded The Daily Show as being perhaps the most important program for political satire on television. “Is there another program out there that’s not quite news but not quite just a comedy show –that has had more impact on politics through laughter and ridicule? Did it long ago eclipse Saturday Night Live?” Kurtz pondered. “The 2012 campaign is prime time for Jon Stewart as he pokes not just the pols but the pundits for being so absurdly fickle.”

Andrew Sullivan spent a good deal of his morning on television today, following up an appearance on The Chris Matthews Show with an extended interview on Reliable Sources, where the blogger discussed moderate conservatism and his increased alienation from the American right with Howard Kurtz. Sullivan insisted that, despite praising President Obama and, on some issues, falling in the Ezra Klein/Thomas Friedman column, he was still a true conservative.

Earlier in the week, NBC announced it would hire Chelsea Clinton as a correspondent for its “Making a Difference” series, a decision that clearly did not go over well for some. On CNN’s Reliable Sources today, Howard Kurtz‘s panel tore into the “Nepotism Broadcasting Company” for depriving someone without connections of such a job, with one panelist particularly noting it was offensive to “young people who played by the rules.”

Over the weekend, Michele Bachmann‘s campaign has been going after CBS News over an e-mail accidentally sent to her spokeswoman saying that Bachmann would not be asked as many questions as the other candidates. The congresswoman accused CBS of media bias, but on Reliable Sources today, Howard Kurtz stood up for the network.

On CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday morning, host Howard Kurtz gave Politico reporter Jonathan Martin a grilling worthy of Bobby Flay over whether the online paper had enough to publish its story on sexual harassment allegations against GOP frontrunner Herman Cain. The answer to that question was obvious, and gave short shrift to several more interesting questions that Kurtz touched on, but that didn’t quite connect.

On Sunday morning’s Reliable Sources, host Howard Kurtz took the media to task for having roundly criticized President Obama‘s decision to get involved in Libya, but failing to give the President credit for Muammar Gaddafi‘s killing at anywhere near the same volume. “The media wallowed for months in criticism of the Libya policy,” Kurtz said,  ”Why don’t they stop now, give some credit to the President when a brutal regime is toppled, and the policy is successful?”

One of the biggest criticisms of the media’s Occupy Wall Street coverage is that it has been generally less dismissive of Tea Party protests in the past and hasn’t been nearly as kind to the Wall Street protestors. Earlier today, Howard Kurtz and the Reliable Sources panel debated whether the Occupy Wall Street protests warranted [...]

Bill O’Reilly responded to Fox News chairman Roger Ailes‘s comments in Howard Kurtz‘s Newsweek cover story regarding his hatred for Sean Hannity and the idea that he was “scared” of Glenn Beck. “Oh, that’s absolutely true,” O’Reilly joked on Don Imus‘ radio program yesterday. “But I hate everybody. You can throw any name in there.”

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Once considered a more base-palatable alternative to Mitt Romney for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was forced to drop out of the race early after a slide that began with his refusal to confront Romney at a debate over “Obamneycare.” According to Howard Kurtz, Pawlenty went looking for work at Fox News shortly thereafter, but was given a resounding “Fox no!” for his troubles.

On CNN’s Reliable Sources today, David Shuster (Keith Olbermann‘s substitute host at Current TV) criticized the moderators of the Fox News GOP debates, and specifically called out anchors Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly, calling them too inexperienced to moderate a political debate. Howard Kurtz pointed out to Shuster that many of the questions asked were substantive and fair.

Earlier this week, we reported the failure of several trained journalists to challenge Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s dangerously irresponsible claims about the HPV vaccine, and while Bachmann’s claims eventually became big news, attended by fact-checking segments of varying quality, the journalists who allowed her to ring that bell got off scot-free. Reliable Sources‘ Howard Kurtz weighed in on the subject Sunday morning, but even his criticism amounted to little more than a soothing wrist massage.

There are currently about… seven thousand Republicans officially in the presidential race so far, and yet many in the media cannot take their eyes off Sarah Palin. Whenever the former Alaska governor appears in public, she gets a fair amount of coverage in the mainstream media. Is the coverage excessive? That’s what today’s Reliable Sources panel examined.

The only thing more predictable than the swallows return to Capistrano is the very use of the Capistrano swallows as banal trend metaphor in a media criticism piece. But a close second in the growing list of media criticism cliché is the post-event hand-wringing alleging overwrought news coverage. Case in point, the Monday morning quarterbacking done by many media critics’ breathlessly taking news outlets to task for ostensibly over-hyping the potential effects of Hurricane Irene.

Yesterday, David Bohrman stopped by his old CNN stomping grounds, appearing on Reliable Sources where Howard Kurtz introduced him as the guy who helped bring us the 2008 election hologram (either a nice compliment or horrible insult depending on your view of that “innovation”). While there, he had a fascinating discussion about his new job, president of Current TV. Borhman discussed “outing” himself as a liberal, the differences between his network and MSNBC, and its relationship with Fox News.

Michele Bachmann and you are running for president, today is a good day to be you. The congresswoman won the Iowa straw poll, she appeared on every single Sunday news show, and she is steadily building momentum that could lead her to win several primaries in the upcoming election season. So it was only appropriate for CNN’s Reliable Sources to revisit that controversial Newsweek cover depicting Bachmann as… as… well, I’m not quite sure, but it wasn’t exactly favorable.

Howard Kurtz spoke with Eric Deggans, a media critic from the St. Petersburg Times about the likely hiring of Al Sharpton to be MSNBC’s newest host of a nightly show. Kurtz and Deggans shared some worries with one another regarding whether or not Sharpton was the person most deserving of getting his own new show.

Jeff Jarvis, writes at BuzzMachine , but his Twitter “venting” at Washington gained national media attention and he explained his disappointment with the government to Howard Kurtz on Reliable Sources. After two glass of wine, Jarvis tells Kurtz he took to Twitter to share his immediate emotion with all politicians and was soon shocked to see how many Americans agreed with him.

The ABC News division is making some news of its own by acknowledging they will no longer dole out license fees for photos or videos to potential newsmakers, in exchange for exclusive access to then later conduct interviews with them. The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz reports that after several “black eyes,” including paying Casey Anthony $200,000 for photos in 2008 before she was charged with murder of her daughter, ABC News president Ben Sherwood has decided against allowing the practice to be used in the future.