The hyperventilating media have thrust Jared Kushner into the spotlight of the ongoing Russia investigation prematurely — perhaps recklessly — despite the lack of evidence suggesting he's a target, Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz said.
In fact, the only place where President Donald Trump's son-in-law appears as a target is in the media's overblown coverage of this, Kurtz says.
"We're in an overheated period with the media scrutiny of this," Kurtz says. "It may lead to nothing. Jared Kushner is not a target of the investigation but he is clearly the target of the media in a way that makes me a bit uncomfortable."
Being the target of an official investigation is bad news; being the subject of a probe is a step down but still concerning; the media reports on Kushner is that he's the "focus" or "under scrutiny."
"The media are turning up the volume to 11 over The Washington Post and NBC stories reporting that Kushner is a 'focus' or 'under scrutiny' by the FBI," Kurtz says. "But being the focus under scrutiny doesn't sound to me that different than just being a witness."
Kurtz says the media could be casting a cloud of suspicion over a guy who has done nothing wrong.
"My sense, from watching the coverage, is that there's a considerable amount of media resentment toward Jared Kushner," Kurtz says. "That's in part why we're seeing some pundits saying Kushner should take a leave of absence and otherwise acting like the latest stories amount to a full-blown crisis.
"That doesn't mean he shouldn't be treated fairly. There's been so much saturation coverage of Jared Kushner that a casual consumer of news could get the impression that he's under investigation. And that's just not the case," Kurtz says.
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