Slate‘s media man Jack Shafer listened to Ted Koppel‘s NPR piece on the British sailor hostage thing. Then ye Wrath of Shafer was unleashed:

Is there a more pompous egomaniac purring on the airwaves today than Ted Koppel?

Two days ago, the bouffanted one filed a commentary piece on NPR pegged to the seizure of 15 British sailors and marines by the Iranians. For self-obsessives like Koppel, all journalism is autobiography, so the story doesn’t seem new to him. Instead, it echoes the hostage-taking of American diplomats 28 years ago in Tehran because, as Koppel doesn’t have to remind listeners, it was the news event that started the show America Held Hostage that became Nightline and made his career!