All I can say about this is that Howard Kurtz is a hack. Kurtz pretends he's some arbiter of bias in the media, yet he chose to omit part of what Rachel Maddow said in response to some praise by the White House of herself and Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. Shame on you Howard. The end of her response was actually the most important part, which is where she said they can praise her all they want, but it won't keep her from doing reporting they may not be happy with.

Here's Kurtz's edited version of the clip.

KURTZ: But another cable network got a big wet kiss. Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton talking about MSNBC: "If you're on the left, if you're somebody like Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow, or one of the folks who helps keeps our government honest and pushes and prods to make sure that folks are true to progressive values, then he (the president) thinks that those folks provide an invaluable service."

Rachel Maddow expressed her thanks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC: That was very nice. A nice personal -- very flattering, but it's also nice in the sense that in an election year, it is nice for liberals to hear someone from the Democratic- controlled White House talk about liberals without swearing at them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: So is this an attempt by the White House to make up with the so-called "professional left," and will attacks on Fox backfire?

And here's the entire transcript of the clip from Rachel's show.

MADDOW: The Democratic politics fairy came to visit us today. And the Democratic politics fairy brought us here at THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW two gifts. First, a White House spokesman today brought up on a gaggle on Air Force One the issue of those darn liberal cable news hosts on the MSNBC. But he brought us up in order to say something nice about us. This is a nice change.

Spokesman Bill Burton described COUNTDOWN and this program as, quote, “helping to keep our government honest and pushing and prodding to make sure that folks are true to progressive values.” Mr. Burton said the president, quote, “thinks that those folks provide an invaluable service.”

That was very nice. Nice personally. Of course, it‘s very flattering. But it‘s also nice in the sense that in an election year, it is nice for liberals to hear someone from the Democratic-controlled White House talk about liberals without swearing at them. None of that means, of course, that we will stop reporting the news in the way that sometimes makes the Democratically-controlled White House swear at us again, but still very nice.

Rachel Maddow has more journalistic integrity in her little finger than Kurtz does in his entire body. If he'd meant to do any honest reporting on what the White House said about Maddow and her response to that praise, he'd have included her entire statement in the video clip he showed his viewers.