Howard Kurtz: Arrogance

Maggie Gallagher responded to this Howard Kurtz article on her failure to disclose her government contract with a statement today worth reading in its entirety.

What I find most interesting is Kurtz' response to her statement:

In response, Kurtz told E&P: "It's too bad that Maggie Gallagher, in the process of apologizing for her mistake, has seen fit to blame the messenger. My story made quite clear that her work at HHS included writing brochures for the President's marriage initiative, ghostwriting a magazine article for a top official, and briefing other department officials on the issue. That sure sounds like promotion to me, but none of this would be a media controversy had Ms. Gallagher disclosed the contract in her writing trumpeting the Bush marriage plan."

It seems to me that Gallagher and her HHS contact know a whole lot more about what she was hired to do than Kurtz does, and of course, only Gallagher knows what her intentions were in drafting her statement. Nobody likes to be accused of making an error, especially not media bigwigs like Kurtz. But to respond in such an offhand and unprofessional manner makes me question Kurtz' reporting on this in a way I would never have had he not seen fit to claim omniscience in his response.

Or does Howard Kurtz actually think that what "sounds like promotion" to him may in reality not have been promotion of the policy at all, at least in the eyes of the unanointed?