Fox News anchor Howard Kurtz argues in his new book, Media Madness: Donald Trump, the Press, and the War over the Truth, that the media’s negative coverage of President Trump is actually helping the White House. CNN reviewed the sections of the book that were briefly available on Google Books before they were taken down on Tuesday afternoon. The book is set to be released next week. Kurtz anchors Fox’s weekly media analysis show. In the book, he details what he says is the media’s blatant bias against President Trump, and says that bias has seeped into routine coverage. Kurtz is not as critical of the Trump White House as Michael Wolff was in his book Fire and Fury, but Kurtz is very critical of the media. He writes that the press is “falling into the president’s trap” because Trump is staking his presidency on “destroying the credibility of the news media.” He also says that the media have become “their own worst enemies.” Wolff’s book faced backlash over sourcing and accuracy in Fire and Fury and it looks like Kurtz will have a similar battle. He is already facing criticism over one anecdote involving New York Times political reporter, Jonathan Martin. Kurtz writes that an RNC staff member called Martin during the campaign and Martin allegedly called the staffer “racist and a fascist.” He is quoted in Kurtz’s book saying, “Donald Trump is racist and a fascist, we all know it, and you are complicit. By supporting him, you’re all culpable.” Kurtz writes that the staffer called back months later and Kurtz yelled at him again, causing Sean Spicer to call a Times editor to complain. Martin denies he made any such comments.
“Of course I didn’t yell ‘you’re a racist and a fascist’ or ‘you are complicit’ or ‘you’re all culpable’ at anybody,” Martin said to CNN. “Does that sound like me? More to that point, do those sound like real life lines any human being in the news business would use?”
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