MICKEY KAUS has responded to my earlier comments on conflicts of interest. He says I’m wrong.

UPDATE: Hmm. But if I’m wrong about conflicts and disclosure, what about this?

On the other hand, Kaus is right when he says that Kurtz was soft on CNN regarding the Eason Jordan debacle. And Kurtz hasn’t said anything about CNN’s scandalous use of phony video in an assault weapons story by John Zarrella. But here’s the kicker: as far as I know, neither have any other Big Media opiners, regardless of their affiliation. (Unless I count, and I don’t think I do.) I think that guild-mindedness and political slant is a much bigger problem for the press than institutional conflicts — and I suspect that that’s one reason why the press spends so much time talking about the latter while piously (and bogusly) claiming freedom from the former.