In his Washington Post “Media Notes” column today, Howard Kurtz continues to duck the growing controversy swirling around his CNN colleague, Lou Dobbs.

While Kurtz couldn't bring himself to criticize Dobbs, he did devote a section to the ever-pressing topic of Michael Jackson. And a lengthy section to the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, in which he asserted that President Obama's answer to a question about Gates was “a tactical mistake.” An odd focus for a “Media Notes” column, but it does have benefit of allowing Kurtz to fill column inches without criticizing CNN, which signs his (other) paycheck.