In today's "Media Notes" column, Kurtz actually addresses the birther nonsense -- a breakthrough! But look at what he writes:

The folks who have been pushing the ludicrous claim that Barack Obama wasn't born in the US of A -- a fringe of a fringe -- have gotten way too much media attention. But it's been fascinating to watch how people on the right have handled this embarrassment.

And then Kurtz includes several paragraphs about the birthers, bringing the section to 491 words.

Not mentioned: Lou Dobbs or Jonathan Klein or CNN.

This is ridiculous. The most prominent of the “folks who have been pushing the ludicrous claim” is CNN's Lou Dobbs. CNN president Jonathan Klein defends Dobbs, and blasts Dobbs' critics. And the Washington Post's media critic is afraid to so much as mention them -- and, coincidentally, he draws a paycheck from CNN, too.

It's long past time for the Washington Post's ombudsman and editors to weigh in on Kurtz's behavior. The problem isn't just that Kurtz has a conflict of interest -- that has long been obvious, and the Post is obviously OK with it. But Kurtz's refusal to deal with this story appropriately shows that his reporting is affected by that conflict of interest.