Howard Kurtz Loses Job at FOX and Charlie Kirk

It is often said not to delve into how the sausage is made lest you find out and that knowledge keeps from eating sausage again. I've always loved knowing how things work so I came to know Howard Kurtz from his CNN show Reliable Sources which I would often check out on Sundays before work. I didn't know about his other previous work with the Washington Post. He had started there with Jack Anderson, a legendary reporter and columnist whose syndicated work appeared in Winnipeg at The Sun.

When I first saw his show, I largely had Sundays off. I'd be watching Meet the Press and Reliable Sources among others. My Sundays are not my own much anymore so watching the Sunday political shows is more rare. Kurtz left the show in 2013 to start a similar program on FOX called Media Buzz which replaced a program FOX already had that examined the media review of the week that was.

I don't get FOX News on cable. This is not because of any bias against it but because buying the news package that included it and MSNBC seemed superfluous. I do get FOX News and MSNBC as part of my satellite radio so I tend to bounce around channels to get a sense of what is happening south of the border. On my cable, I continued to watch Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter until CNN cancelled the show due to partisan pressures. Stelter has worked his way back into the network for media analysis.

One of the only programs I used to listen to on FOX was Media Buzz. It has become increasingly a politics show and less about media in recent years. And too many FOX authorized guests repeat talking points. I find it boring just as find three word sloganeering boring. I found Kurtz pushed back or added addendums to some of the blatant propaganda but it was a fairly conservative friendly show. 

It was probably not friendly enough. In today's Republican world, the expectation is you promote Trump and MAGA or face the consequences. It is very likely that Kurtz's Trump interview that challenges falsehoods in the election had some network people looking at possible changes.

Following the death of Charlie Kirk, Kurtz said that Kirk was no angel. It was the wrong thing to say because many Republicans were very much trying to make him an angel. Criticism of this kind was just not in the cards and FOX cancelled Media Buzz in favour of a Sunday morning political show with reliable conservatives. One FOX news channel personality mocked Kurtz over the loss of his show. Greg Gutfield has often being particularly cruel.

Kurtz will continue with his FOX podcast and will be an analyst for two years but he has been de-platformed essentially. I have no idea what the ratings of the show were. I used to rely on media analysts to tell me what the ratings and profitability was. Now, no show exists of that.

To be fair, Canada hasn't had very much in the way of news and media analysts. I can think of no show that has existed or presently exists. That's true of both public and private broadcasters, We have huge gaps in coverage in terms of media, education, sports and business.

I'll miss the media show on FOX just as I missed CNN's show. I think politics killed them. And now there won't be a show to sometimes point out that media needs to a light shone on them at all times.