Fox News host Howard Kurtz is doubling down on claims that a New York Times reporter spoke ill of President Donald Trump to a Republican National Committee staff member.
Times political reporter Jonathan Martin has disputed the account, which first surfaced in Kurtz’s upcoming book, “Media Madness: Donald Trump, the Press and the War Over the Truth.”
In the book, Kurtz alleges Martin yelled at an RNC staffer over the phone, saying, “Donald Trump is racist and a fascist, we all know it, and you are complicit. By supporting him you’re all culpable.”
The book says the conversation prompted Sean Spicer, who was RNC’s communications director at the time, to call the Times to complain.
In an email to CNN, Martin said: “Of course I didn’t yell ‘you’re a racist and a fascist’ or ‘you are complicit’ or ‘you’re all culpable’ at anybody. 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?”
In a post on Fox News this afternoon, Kurtz claims that “two more sources have now emerged to confirm the account.” Kurtz describes the unnamed sources as a former member of RNC’s communications team and a current RNC worker. He added in the post that he spoke with two other RNC officials for his book. They also are not named.
Toward the end of the post, Kurtz writes that Martin’s comments to CNN and other news organizations are a sign that “he has waived the right to keep (our conversations) off the record, as I had done at his request.”
“He repeatedly said he did not recall saying such things to the RNC staffer or the confrontational call with Spicer,” Kurtz wrote. “He said several times that he could not imagine himself saying something like that. But he didn’t flatly deny it.
“That remained his position as I went back to him with more information, while protecting the identities of my confidential sources. I kept urging him to say anything he wanted for the book and I would include it, but he insisted on staying off the record.”
Making public an off-the-record conversation without a source’s permission is considered unethical in most journalism circles. But that version of events matches up somewhat with what Martin told CNN – except that when Kurtz approached him, the host couldn’t say who exactly Martin had yelled at. Kurtz planned to “see what he could get,” and return to Martin with more information.
“I never heard another word from him after that,” Martin told CNN. “And I still have no idea what he or Sean Spicer are talking about.”
With its reporting in question, “Media Madness” follows concerns that Michael Wolff’s recent book on the Trump administration, “Fire and Fury,” could contain errors.
Contact Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@bigiftrue.org. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.