I don't necessarily mean that as a slight directed at George Stephanopoulos who may end up replacing Diane Sawyer who exits to become ABC's new evening news anchor. I'm sure within the television industry these kind of celebrity anchor changes are a big deal, and if Stephanopoulos gets the lucrative assignment, good for him.

What I do think was absurd though, was the the kind of breaking-news approach that the WashPost's Howard Kurtz took in reporting that ABC's This Week host had reportedly been offered the a.m. job, but no actual deal had been signed. In other words, negotiations were continuing. (And....?)

Check out this passage:

As the discussions have dragged on for weeks, Stephanopoulos has pushed for a role reshaped to spotlight his interest in politics and hard news rather than feature segments. The sources, who declined to be identified discussing internal personnel matters, cautioned that the negotiations are complicated and the two sides might fail to reach agreement.

Will you be able to sleep tonight knowing the multi-million dollar GMA deal might not become a reality? Honestly, this kind of reverential coverage for a wake-up co-host job on a feather-light program is rather absurd, and more than a little unsightly. And Kurtz especially is guilty of often filling his media beat with lots of worshipful coverage of network news readers, treating them like movie stars. It's creepy.