Howard Kurtz on Lance Armstrong, Newt Gingrich, and CNN's Mistake

Imus used to read Howard Kurtz’s columns in the Washington Post occasionally, but now that Kurtz writes almost everyday for The Daily Beast, Imus reads him almost everyday.
 
“We all live on internet time now,” Kurtz, who covers the media, noted. “If you haven’t said something about something that happened ten minutes ago, you’re old news.”
 
Also old news, literally: weeklies like TIME and Newsweek, the latter of which was recently brought into The Daily Beast family. Turning around its reputation and making it seem relevant have been challenging, Kurtz admitted.
 
“In a news cycle that operates at the speed of light, do you need a once-a-week magazine?” he said. Rather than reflect on the week that was, Newsweek’s approach of late tends more toward the “reported narrative,” where writers spend weeks delving deep into a story. The goal, Kurtz added, is to “make it something people have to read.”
 
As he holds his breath waiting for that to happen, Kurtz reported on why Lance Armstrong was not interviewed by 60 Minutes in their piece this past Sunday about doping in cycling, in which two former cyclists accused him of using illegal substances during some of his Tour de France wins.
 
“He felt the show had treated him unfairly, because 60 Minutes would not give Armstrong and his lawyers the names of the cyclists who were going to come on camera,” Kurtz said. Though Armstrong’s team provided CBS with information showing that their witness Tyler Hamilton had made previous sworn statements to the contrary, according to Armstrong, CBS went with the story anyway.
 
Armstrong ultimately decided not to participate in the segment, and reminded Kurtz he’s taken hundreds of drug tests and never failed a single one. “So you’ve got Lance Armstrong’s word versus a couple of these guys, some of whom have made these charges before, like Floyd Landis, some of whom were put in front of a camera by 60 Minutes,” Kurtz said. “But they’ve got credibility problems too, because some of them are admitted dopers, so it’s hard as a viewer to know who to believe.”
 
It’s also difficult to believe that Bob Schieffer asked Newt Gingrich what he bought at Tiffany’s in his now infamous $500 million-dollar spending spree. Quoting Gingrich, Kurtz replied, “When you run for president, everything is fair game. It doesn’t mean he’s going to answer all the questions.”
 
Kurtz’s other employer, CNN, had some explaining of its own to do after airing a special on political sexual scandals that conveniently omitted Eliot Spitzer from a list that included such horndogs as John Edwards, Bill Clinton, Larry Craig, and David Vitter.
 
“I went on my show Sunday, and I made that very point,” Kurtz, who hosts Reliable Sources, said. He added, “The guy was Governor of New York. He resigned in disgrace!”
 
Ah, the memories.
 
-Julie Kanfer