Howie Kurtz Thinks The Internet Owes Poor David Paterson An Apology

Howie Kurtz would like the media to apologize to poor, picked on, Gov. David Paterson. On yesterday’s Reliable Sources Kurtz highlighted the “rumor-mongering” that followed Paterson around after a tweet from the NYO’s John Koblin started the NYT ‘bombshell’ firestorm.

It may be the most egregious case of rumor-mongering I’ve ever seen. And to make things worse, it was completely and utterly wrong.

Cue a montage of website screen shots featuring breathless headlines — including Mediaite — to illustrate his point: the Internet is irresponsible, rumor-infested, and evil! (Though, actually in our defense, I think most of our coverage on this particular subject was more in the vein of casting doubt on the “bombshell” but thanks for reading Howie!). Kurtz goes on:

And that was it. All the other unsubstantiated garbage never got published. The Times, as it should, stuck to the facts that they could verify. This was a truly shameful episode of media misconduct. And every outlet that repeated those rumors based on nothing but malicious gossip owes David Paterson an apology. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

I wouldn’t hold my breath either, Mr. Kurtz, mostly because I’m not convinced anyone actually owes Paterson an apology. The Internet has always functioned like this, it’s just that the blogosphere is now mainstream so the higher-ups are feeling the heat. Paterson merely had the unfortunate experience of being the first big test case in the world of new media journalism, for better or worse he likely won’t be the last and everyone running in the midterms this fall may want to take note!

Also? Does Howie read the NYT? It seems a little bit selective to only take into consideration Friday’s piece about Paterson (which, would have been more bombshell-like had it not been preceded by such a firestorm of speculation) when there was an equally big A-1 piece on Wednesday that cast further doubt on the people Paterson chooses to surround himself with. Anyway, in the meantime, Paterson has just had two weeks under a very hot and harsh spotlight that got him a lot of national attention…and he didn’t have to spend one penny on it! Video below.

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