Howard Kurtz today:

In the abstract, government regulation sounds onerous. But when an offshore rig explodes, people want to know why the regulators weren't doing their jobs.

Maybe Obama is going too far. This is a debate we need to have. This is a debate the media need to have, rather than just playing the video of Joe Barton embarrassing himself.

John Aravosis of Americablog told me in a conversation the other day that such coverage might be too “boring,” too Atlantic Monthly, for most Americans. I disagree. If we can't find a way to make such fundamental issues compelling, we ought to find another line of work.

It's so nice to see Kurtz come around to such a reasonable position, I won't bother to dredge up examples of Kurtz defending media coverage that is sensational rather than substantive. I will, however, keep this in mind for the next time he defends lousy coverage that fails to substantively address fundamental issues …