Howard Kurtz's 'Scoop' Was First Revealed by David Blum Two Years Ago
By AAN Staff
october 10, 2007 10:25 am
The
Washington Post media columnist's new book
Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War has the Beltway buzzing after being partially leaked on the Drudge Report this weekend. "Kurtz's story was treated as big news -- but the substance, and some of the language as well, was no different from
New York Press editor-in-chief David Blum's 2004 book,
Tick... Tick... Tick..: The Long Life and Turbulent Times of 60 Minutes," according to Gawker. The big scoop from Kurtz was that Dan Rather threatened to take his Bush/National Guard documents -- which ultimately cost him his anchor chair at CBS -- to the
New York Times, which was included in the 2005 paperback edition of Blum's book. Kurtz says he never saw that edition of the book. "Good for him for getting there first," he tells Gawker. "I'm a fanatic about giving credit, which is why my book is filled with footnotes, but you can't do that if you've never seen the information." That's all fine and good, but
it leaves the New York Observer to wonder: Will Kurtz "continue to tout the anecdote as a 'scoop' in his upcoming appearances supporting the book?"
