Howard Kurtz Bashes Whitfield’s, CNN’s ‘Abominable’ Handling of Dallas Comments

Fox News in-house media critic Howard Kurtz found CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield’s clarification of her Saturday comment “weak,” saying she and the network took far too long to address them, and then failed to properly do so.

While anchoring on Saturday, Whitfield perplexingly called a man’s attack on the Dallas Police Department “courageous and brave, if not crazy,” which sparked an immediate backlash and demands for an apology from the Fort Worth Police Association. On Sunday afternoon Whitfield said she “misspoke,” but did not apologize, all but certainly authorizing a reaction like Kurtz’s.

-RELATED: CNN Fails Damage Control 101 on Whitfield’s ‘Courageous and Brave’ Comment and Non-Apology

“The handling of this has been abominable,” Kurtz said. “We journalists like to criticize political campaigns and candidates for not quickly reacting when they make a mistake. Journalists need to do the same thing. 24 hours is an eternity in the news industry. But when she did make the clarification, no apology or expression of regret, no apology to police or viewers. …I don’t think you can even call it an apology.”

Kurtz added that Whitfield’s brief clarification was unlikely to mollify the law enforcement community.

“She needs to say she is sorry,” Kurtz continued. “When you make a mistake of that magnitude you need to own it.”

Watch below, via Fox News:

[Image via screengrab]

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