Perhaps Just Stubborness

It strikes me as just a little odd that Howard Kurtz's Media Notes column focuses on 1. The Ted Koppel succession 2. Questions about the future of television journalism and 3. The LA Times being excluded from interviews with California Gov. Schwarzenegger.

Kurtz is no stranger to bloggers and therefore surely knows the hot topic over the past five days has been MSM's failure to report on the background of antiwar protest organizers like ANSWER and the tone of the protest itself. So I'm surprised that this doesn't turn up either in his dead-tree column or in the extended online version, which includes additional comments such as Ed Morrisey's thoughts on Bill Frist. I hope the abysmal performance of the Washington Post itself isn't the reason for Kurtz ignoring the issue.

Part of Kurtz's column includes an unintentionally comic observation from NBC's Brian Williams:

"When tragedy befalls the United States, when the event takes place that demands our attention, viewers come roaring back to the broadcast networks," he says. "It's the resources we can bring to bear on a crisis that sets us apart. We were able to operate in New Orleans in places where the federal government was not. We beat the first responders. We set the agenda during this particular event. We were witnesses, so we drove the story."

Williams says a long period of reticence by news organizations -- which he dubs "the 9/11 syndrome" -- ended with Hurricane Katrina.

I think he's serious. Okay, Brian, it was all about you setting the agenda, and we can only pray for the end of our long national nightmare of reticence by news organizations.

Kurtz has a live chat at noon.