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Tag: howard kurtz

  • Greta Van Susteren And Bret Baier Defend “Softball” Hillary Clinton Interview

    A few days ago, Hillary Clinton was interviewed on Fox News by Greta Van Susteren and Bret Baier. Many viewers were expecting a half hour of painful questions and accusations. After all, Van Susteren is the Fox News host who slammed comedian Jon Stewart, grilled congressional candidate Mike Dickinson, and came head to head with fellow Fox News anchor Erick Erickson.

    What happened instead? Clinton said what she had to say, while the hosts asked informative questions.

    Howard Kurtz of Fox described the interview as “brisk and businesslike, sober and substantive, almost like a lightning-round quiz on foreign and domestic issues.” He added that “Hillary Clinton didn’t filibuster, so Bret Baier and Greta Van Susteren didn’t have to interrupt.” They covered issues from Benghazi to NSA surveillance, in addition to the contents Clinton’s latest book, Hard Choices.

    To watch the interview yourself, see the following video:

    Conservatives across Twitter were none too pleased with the interview. Some took to social media to express yearning for the interview they wanted and frustration for the one they saw. Although many simply saved their criticism for the former secretary of state, and spared Greta Van Susteren, Bret Baier, and Fox News.

    In response to this wave of criticism, both Van Susteren and Baier have defended their segment, saying that they weren’t trying to pick a fight with Hillary Clinton. However, according to Mediaite, both of them expected this kind of reaction. “The criticism was going to come no matter what,” Baier explained.

    “There’s not always going to be this, ‘Dude that was two years ago’ moment,” Beier further conceded about discussing Benghazi with Clinton, but he went on to say. “I don’t think in interviews, trying to get news, that somebody should plan to try to get somebody to that point.”

    As far as Greta Van Susteren was concerned: “That’s a little bit, almost, entertainment. “There was no sort of grand strategy, to try to get a gotcha. It was to try to get information for the viewers.”

    Image via YouTube.

  • Howard Kurtz Fired After Jason Collins Story

    Howard Kurtz, the writer whose piece on Jason Collins drew backlash earlier this week, has been fired from The Daily Beast.

    Kurtz alleged in his story that Collins, who has just come out as a gay man, didn’t come clean about his engagement to a woman. He also made several errors regarding Collins’ essay in Sports Illustrated, then updated his article to amend his original stance and ended up just making readers angry.

    Collins’ piece read, “When I was younger I dated women. I even got engaged. I thought I had to live a certain way. I thought I needed to marry a woman and raise kids with her. I kept telling myself the sky was red, but I always knew it was blue.”

    The Daily Beast retracted the article and released a statement about Kurtz’s errors, saying, “The Daily Beast sincerely regrets Kurtz’s error — and any implication that Collins attempted to hide or obscure the engagement.”

    Since coming out in the most recent edition of Sports Illustrated, Collins is being recognized as the first openly gay professional athlete in the U.S. The story went viral this week, but Kurtz’s blog post picked up major media attention and may have had a hand in his termination. Kurtz had this to say on Twitter:

    “I’ve enjoyed my time at the Daily Beast but as we began to move in different directions, both sides agreed it was best to part company,” he wrote. “This was in the works for some time, but want to wish all my colleagues continued success with a terrific website. Newsweek and the Beast are great brands, but the time had come for me to move on to other opportunities.”