Marcotte resigns; Kurtz spins
Howard Kurtz gets paid to do media criticism. That's because he's better at it than all those bloggers who give it away free on the world-wide web. Kurtz shows why he's worth the money as he covers the resignation of Amanda Marcotte.

He underplays the most offensive aspects of Marcotte's anti-Christian ranting and allows her to paint herself as a victim of a handful of rightwingers.

Kurtz frames the issue this way:

But many of these bloggers have a long cybertrail that leaves them vulnerable to criticism in the more buttoned-down environment of national politics.

And

She also questioned, in explicit language, what would have happened if the Virgin Mary had taken the emergency contraceptive called Plan B.

This is what Marcotte actually wrote:

Q: What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit? A: You’d have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology.

Kurtz is acting more like a PR flack for Marcotte instead of a fearless press critic or even-handed reporter. Maybe he feels sorry for her. Maybe he just doesn't understand Christianity. Maybe the pervasive liberalism of CNN and the WaPo has corroded his critical faculties. Whatever the reason, he did not help enlighten his readers with this piece of hackwork.

UPDATE: This post from Cathy Young provides a better picture of Marcotte's writing.