On yesterday's Reliable Sources, Howard Kurtz led his panel in a discussion of the media's fascination with tabloid and celebrity stories -- during which Kurtz went out of his way to suggest his disapproval:

KURTZ: As we look back at the press's performance in 2009, there were times when the news business was just swept away by strange and sensational stories. These ranged from the death of world famous celebrities to runaway reality shows to high-profile hoaxes. And they all became Category 5 media storms.

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So why do journalists allow themselves to be hijacked by frivolous fair?

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let me move on to the creeping influence of the reality show culture.

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The media went crazy, Jessica, over the Salahis, the White House party crashers.

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What about Richard Heene, the balloon boy's father, or Octomom? I mean, the media just seems magnetically drawn to these freak shows.

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I actually think that's a good thing, that we are no longer the sole gatekeepers and people can file online on their Facebook -- but it now seems that we have totally abdicated our leadership and we just follow whatever's hot.

But Kurtz never addressed why he is “magnetically drawn to these freak shows.” See, few journalists obsess over celebrity news and scandal and “frivolous fair” as much as Howard Kurtz does. For a while there, it looked like he was going to pitch a tent in Tiger Woods' front lawn, for example. And that came after his months-long obsession with David Letterman (an obsession which continues long after everyone else stopped caring.) If Kurtz really wanted to have a meaningful discussion of the media's focus on these stories, he could kick things off by explaining why he devotes so much attention to them. Instead, he pretended it has nothing to do with him.

I'll put this in terms Kurtz can understand: Howard Kurtz leading a discussion of why the media obsesses over tabloid and celebrity stories without ever once explaining why he obsesses over them is like Tiger Woods giving a speech about why athletes have affairs without ever addressing his own.