Professional media prevaricator Howie Kurtz has long bent over backwards to balance anything that might be construed as a "viewpoint" with an equal, opposite viewpoint. It comes from working in Washington too long. But sometimes, it gets out of hand.

In an otherwise decent profile of veteran black newswoman Carole Simpson today, there's this:

Two years later, a drunken NBC producer-the likely culprit for her earlier problems-told her at the Republican convention: "You think because you're black and you're a woman you can get anything you want. And you slut, you don't deserve it." Searing words that would affect anyone's outlook on life, and yet, Simpson has to admit that she has also benefited from affirmative action.

On the one hand, she was called a black slut... but on the other hand, she admits that she benefited from affirmative action. It's called balance, people. Tough but fair.

You know, after everything, we really believe that Howie Kurtz means well. We really do.

[Photo via Getty]