Sean Hannity called new Fox News hire Howard Kurtz ‘a nitwit’

Now that Howard Kurtz is leaving CNN for Fox News Channel, things might be getting animated around the water cooler at Rupert Murdoch’s cable news network.

Kurtz, a media critic and the host since 1998 of CNN’s journalism roundtable “Reliable Sources,” will be taking over the weekend show “Fox News Watch,” pushing out current host Jon Scott, whom Fox is moving elsewhere. The move came as a surprise because Kurtz has sometimes been harshly critical of Fox News.

At least one Fox News host isn’t likely to roll out a welcome mat: conservative host Sean Hannity, who recently dubbed Kurtz “a nitwit.”

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“I don’t like him,” Hannity said during an on-camera interview in April. “He’s full of crap ... a sanctimonious, self-righteous, phony establishment journalist.”

According to liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America, Hannity may have been perturbed because Kurtz had criticized Fox News for airing an interview of former President George W. Bush that was conducted by his former press secretary, Dana Perino.

Kurtz has lately been making headlines as well as analyzing them. He left the Dailly Beast under a cloud this year when he wrote a piece erroneously suggesting that NBA player Jason Collins concealed a past marriage when he came out as gay; in fact, Collins had mentioned the marriage in a Sports Illustrated piece. He also made a video lampooning Collins for the Daily Download, where he is a contributor. Kurtz later apologized, saying he had not read Collins’ essay carefully enough.

CNN decided to stick by Kurtz after conducting a review of his work.

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