Kurtz’s Vacation Jinx Continues

Howard Kurtz‘s vacations are cursed. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that his vacations are a curse for the rest of the media world. Jayson Blair and Rick Bragg broke over his wedding–forcing him into a Kinko’s to file the story. Earlier this year, Mark Felt‘s identity as Deep Throat came to light was Kurtz was off.

Most recently, Peter Jennings died–one of the biggest media stories of the year–while Kurtz was off.

And then he took some time off last week too. Drumbeat please…. Here’s today’s installment:

Washington, D.C.: Mr. Kurtz: Regarding your tribute to Jack Anderson, I would like to know if he ever tried to use his column to badger elected officials into supporting his pet causes, the way that Drew Pearson used to do?

Howard Kurtz: I can’t think of an instance, although in 35 years of column writing I suppose you might find a couple. Jack did have his crusades, such as a war on government waste, but badgering particular lawmakers wasn’t his style.
I was really out of position on Saturday morning when word came that he had died. I was finishing a vacation in L.A. and about to head to the airport, with 90 minutes until the flight took off. Since I worked for Anderson three decades ago, I really wanted to write an appreciation, but I would then be in the air for five hours and land well after deadline. So I scribbled the story on a pad as my wife drove to LAX and then dictated it by cell phone from the Hertz rental car place. Unfortunately, I cut it too close and American Airlines wouldn’t let us board because we had violated some rule (which I’d never heard of) that you have to check in 40 minutes before the flight. Only some vigorous persuasion (read: begging) persuaded the counter man to waive the rule and let my family proceed to the gate, where boarding was almost finished. I wish I’d had more time to work on the piece, but I think Jack would have understood that a deadline is a deadline.

Anyway, when Kurtz vacations, media world beware. The man may work harder than just about anyone in the media, but it’s the time when he’s NOT working that you should be most on your toes.

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