Kurtzing the Washington Post

Captain Ed coined the verb "To Kurtz", meaning to provide cover to one's buddies or employer by ostensibly covering a story in the lamest manner possible.

Today, Howard Kurtz kurtzes his paper's false reporting regarding an alleged Gridiron Dinner skit:

Premature Review

How did The Washington Post manage to report that a Gridiron Club skit had lampooned commentator Armstrong Williams when the skit never took place?

"It was a goofball mistake on my part," says Post reporter Neely Tucker, who corrected it after the first edition and apologized to Williams. He says journalist sources told him of the planned skit -- working reporters are barred from the annual event -- and that he only learned later that it had been dropped. (President Bush did make a joke about Williams, who took $240,000 from the administration.) Williams is miffed that a Post correction on the incident didn't mention his name for those who might have read the early-edition story.

See how it's done?

Kurtz' colleague is allowed to claim a baldfaced lie is nothing more than "a goofball mistake".

Well, it's the same sort of "goofball mistake" that got Jayson Blair and others canned in recent years. One would think that a "media critic" might point that out.

We report. They fantasize.