Washington Post vs. Huffington Post: Catfight on CNN’s Reliable Sources

It’s too early on a Sunday morning to have to endure a cat fight on CNN, particularly on Reliable Sources, which can be mildly combative, but nothing like this.  Howard Kurtz was on the verge of losing control when Nico Pitney (HuffPost) and Dana Milbank (WashPost) engaged in rhetorical hand to hand combat over the former getting to ask President Obama a question at White House press conference, something the latter compared with a pre-scripted, pre-arranged propaganda festival.

Wow.

Milbank’s anger level and “how dare you retort, sir” offense was visible, and even Kurtz seemed a bit stunned at how personal it got. Milbank’s attempt to bring “props” with his “pile of evidence” went over as well as Senator Iselin waving a stack of papers in The Manchurian Candidate claiming they contained a list of Communists hiding out at the State Department.

This is another example of old media vs. new media. Milbank is a columnist at the Post, so it didn’t fly that he was the keeper of the true journalism keys over there. HuffPost has not claimed to be the 21st century replacement for the Washington Post, and those who read it already don’t recognize it as such.

Milbank’s fur is in a ruffle over the fact Pitney got to ask the question in the first place. David Gregory on NBC’s Meet the Press was as petulant, trying to drag David Axelrod into the Old Media Whinefest yesterday (as if there are no other important issues to consider asking).

The media likes to pretend press conferences and other media events are impromptu affairs, and they are not. Pitney being told he might be called on for a question is hardly unprecedented. Administrations have used the question treat as a reward before. As long as the Administration didn’t know the question in advance (or that it would be a guaranteed softball, such as the ones former male prostitute David Gannon/Guckert used to get to throw during the last administration), this is much more about media divas than actual substance.

By the way, Meet the Press routinely informs its guests of the subjects it is going to cover, and Milbank wouldn’t have shown up with his props if he didn’t know what was coming from Howard Kurtz either.