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Tuesday, Oct 5, 2010 8:06 PM UTC

Howie Kurtz moves to the Daily Beast

The Washington Post's pathologically neutral media reporter moves to Tina Brown's Internet dinner party

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Topics: War Room, Media Criticism, Washington Post,

Howie Kurtz moves to the Daily BeastHoward Kurtz

Here’s another recent bit of media news that Howard Kurtz missed: Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz is quitting the Post for Tina Brown’s Web magazine, the Daily Beast. This is terribly exciting news for fans of thrilling, new-media journalism experiments run by old magazine and newspaper veterans who don’t understand and are honestly a bit put off by the Internet.

Kurtz is, obviously, thrilled to be a new resident of the pit into which Barry Diller’s money is dumped.

“I am trying to be an online entrepreneur and that can be difficult in a big company that has an established way of doing things,” he says.

Kurtz, one of the nation’s most respected reporters, does not understand what an “entrepreneur” is. He will actually be working for IAC, a multinational corporation with billions in assets.

I assume Kurtz will remain at CNN, where he recently interviewed his new editor, Tina Brown. (Two years after his glowing column on Brown and her new Web project.)

Kurtz will be named Tina Brown’s Internet Tendency’s “Washington bureau chief,” and he tells TBD.com that “the tone of his reporting and writing will be pretty much the same as what he’s done over the years.” That’s thrilling news to fans of columns that raise questions, then quote people with opposing views on said questions, and then move on without coming to any conclusions.

Between this and Howard Fineman’s move to the Huffington Post, this is a fine time to accept a great deal of money to go work for your rich friend’s cheap-content farm. Keep working for next-to-nothing, kids, and someday you’ll get to watch some useless old dude receive a fat check and a fancy title for penning the kind of equivocating, boring piffle that the Internet was supposed to kill.

Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.

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