University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cutbirth paid homage to Carey in James Carey and the Columbia School, an essay he wrote and delivered as a representative of Carey’s Columbia students at Conversations & Communications: A Conference in Memory of James W. Carey. Politics and media criticism As a blogger for The Huffington Post, Cutbirth has supported and criticized President Barack Obama, for whom Cutbirth voted in both the 2008 New York primary and general election. In 2009 he chastised reporters traveling with Pope Benedict XVI for not pressing evidence when the Pope claimed condoms actually spread AIDS. Cutbirth called on John McCain to apologize to Obama for racist overtones in the 2008 campaign, and he criticized Texas Governor Rick Perry for "secessionist demagoguery" at the Texas Capitol. He also questioned the veracity of reporters who allow Perry to call health care reform "socialized medicine", and he argued that ESPN ethics in the case of Craig James and former Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach "stink". Other columns have offered commentary on media coverage of Sarah Palin, Harvey Milk, Caroline Kennedy and Pat Tillman. He made the switch from journalism to political operative and pundit in 1994, when Governor Ann Richards hired him to be spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party and effectively "go one-on-one with" Bush Spokeswoman Karen Hughes. Journalism Cutbirth spent more than a decade as a daily newspaper and wire service reporter, largely covering government and Texas politics. He began his career at The Wichita Falls Times. In his first year there he won the International Reading Association Print Media Award for Why Can’t Johnnie Read?, an investigative series on illiteracy in America. He also received the Texas Women’s Political Caucus Chrysalis Award for exposing the city’s long-term disregard of a federal court order to counter decades of discrimination in the hiring of women police officers. He worked briefly at the Morris News Service state capital bureau, where he covered Lloyd Bentsen’s 1988 vice presidential campaign until he was hired to cover state government and politics for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. There he covered the Branch Davidian siege at Waco, Ann Richards’ successful 1990 gubernatorial bid, and the grand jury indictments on ethics charges of both Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. His story on Hutchison's acquittal received top statewide honor for deadline reporting from the Dallas Press Club, and his