Howard Kurtz | |
|---|---|
 Kurtz in 2012 | |
| Born | Howard Alan Kurtz (1953-08-01)August 1, 1953 (age 72) New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University at Buffalo (BA) Columbia University (MA) |
| Occupations | Journalist,author |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Tallmer (1979–?; 2 children) Sheri Annis (2003–2018; 1 child)[1] |
Howard Alan Kurtz (/kɜːrts/; born August 1, 1953) is an Americanjournalist andauthor and host ofMedia Buzz onFox News. He is the former media writer forThe Washington Post and the former Washington bureau chief forThe Daily Beast. He has written five books about the media. Kurtz leftCNN and joined Fox News in 2013.
Kurtz was born to aJewish family,[2] in theSheepshead Bay neighborhood ofBrooklyn, New York, the son of Marcia, a homemaker, and Leonard Kurtz, a clothing executive.[3] He is a 1970 graduate ofSheepshead Bay High School,[4] and also of theUniversity at Buffalo (State University of New York). In college, he worked on a student newspaper, theSpectrum, becoming the editor his senior year.[3] Kurtz earned aB. A. in psychology and English in 1974. He then attended theColumbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
After college, Kurtz went to work for theRecord in New Jersey.[3] He moved to Washington, D.C., to work as a reporter for syndicated columnistJack Anderson.[3] Kurtz left Anderson to joinThe Washington Star, an afternoon paper. When the newspaper closed in 1981, Kurtz was hired atThe Washington Post byBob Woodward, then the Metro editor. Kurtz has also written forThe New Republic,The Washington Monthly, andNew York magazine.
Kurtz joined the staff ofThe Washington Post in 1981 and left in 2010 (29 years). He served there as a national affairs correspondent, New York bureau chief and deputy national editor.[5] Kurtz covered the news media between 1990 and 2010 forThe Washington Post.[6][7]
From 1998 until 2013, Kurtz served as host of the weeklyCNN programReliable Sources, a cable television program that explores the standards, performance and biases of the media.[8] Kurtz led the scrutinizing of the media's fairness and objectivity by questioning journalists of top news organizations, including those at CNN.[9] The show premiered in 1992 when it originated as a one-hour special to discuss the media's coverage of the Persian Gulf War.[10]
Kurtz's 2008Reliable Sources interview ofKimberly Dozier, aCBS reporter wounded in Iraq, was criticized by several members of the media because Kurtz's wife had been paid as a publicist for Dozier's memoir. During the interview, Kurtz praised Dozier and read passages of her book.[11]
In October 2010, Kurtz announced he was moving to the online publicationThe Daily Beast.[12] He served as the Washington bureau chief for the website, writing on media and politics until 2013.[13][14] His salary atThe Daily Beast was reported to be $600,000 a year.[15] On May 2, 2013, the site's editor-in-chiefTina Brown announced that Kurtz andThe Daily Beast had "parted company".[16] It occurred in the aftermath of a controversy in which Kurtz incorrectly accused NBA playerJason Collins of failing to acknowledge a former heterosexual engagement when hecame out as a homosexual; Kurtz stated the parting was mutual and "in the works for some time".[17][18][19] Sources inside theDaily Beast newsroom have stated that Kurtz's departure became inevitable once he began writing for and promoting a lesser-known media website called Daily Download.[20][21] Kurtz was previously the subject of controversy when Nancy Pelosi denied making a statement Kurtz attributed to her,[22] and a quote Kurtz attributed toDarrell Issa was reported to have actually been made by his spokesperson.[23] Brown later said onTwitter she fired Kurtz for "serial inaccuracy".[24]
On June 20, 2013, Kurtz left CNN to join Fox News Channel to host a weekend media program and write a column for FoxNews.com.[25] Kurtz'sMedia Buzz replaced theFox News Watch program hosted byJon Scott. Fox News has been supportive ofDonald Trump's presidential campaigns. In an October 2024 interview conducted by Kurtz, Trump "was challenged directly on some of his most glaring falsehoods of the campaign."[26] His TV showMediaBuzz was cancelled in September 2025 after 12 years on the air; thepodcast format of the show is expected to continue for at least two more years.[27]
Media Circus: The Trouble with America's Newspapers (1993,ISBN 0-8129-2022-8) identifies problems afflicting U.S. newspapers and offers suggestions. Among the issues identified are timid leadership, a spreading tabloid approach to news with a growing focus on celebrities and personal scandal, poor coverage of racial issues and the Persian Gulf war, increasing bureaucracy and a pasteurization of the news.[28][29]
Hot Air: All Talk, All the Time (1997,ISBN 0-8129-2624-2) describes failings of the talk-show and political talk-show format even as it had been rapidly proliferating on television and radio. Some problems he identifies include superficiality, lies, hysteria, lack of preparation,sensationalism and conflicts of interest.[30]
Spin Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine (1998,ISBN 0-684-85231-4) describes various techniques used by the Clinton White House to put spin on the controversies and scandals surrounding the Clintons and to refocus the attention of the media on topics other than non-issues focused on by the media.[31][32]
The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media, and Manipulation (2000,ISBN 0-684-86879-2) addresses the growing public fascination with stock market trading as fueled by cable television shows and internet sites providing platforms to pundits, stock touts and brokerage firm stock analysts. The potential for manipulation of the media and the public by stock market insiders is discussed.[33][34]
Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War (2007,ISBN 0-7432-9982-5) chronicles the struggles at TV networks ABC, NBC and CBS to enhance the stature, credibility and audience draw of their anchors of the evening network news programs. The book's focus is on ABC'sCharles Gibson, CBS'sKatie Couric and NBC'sBrian Williams.[35][36]
Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press, And The War Over The Truth, which was released in January 2018, discussedDonald Trump's fights with the news media during the first year of hispresidency.[37][38][39] The book argues that the media unfairly treated President Trump. According to a review byJonathan Chait inNew York magazine, "To Kurtz ... the 'massive imbalance' between Trump's coverage and coverage of other presidents can only be explained by media bias. He treats this premise as definitionally true—not defending it outright, but simply building his case as though no other explanation could even theoretically exist. And so the strange mission of his book is to analyze the hostile relationship between Trump and the mainstream news media without in any way acknowledging any background as to why."[40]
Kurtz married Sheri Annis in May 2003. Annis, a media consultant and political commentator, served as campaign spokesperson for Republican California GovernorArnold Schwarzenegger and has worked on various conservative political initiatives, including California'sProposition 227 andProposition 209.[41] Kurtz has publicly declined to state his political affiliation.[42] As a high-profile media critic and analyst, Kurtz's political leanings and multiple employers and possible biases have been discussed by fellow media critics and pundits. Both liberal and conservative viewpoints have been observed in his writing.[3]
...any more than I believe he was anti-Semitic because he once made tasteless cracks about my being Jewish.
