When I began at TVNewser almost five years ago, I would scour local newspaper websites for what the TV columinsts were writing about: Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post, Joanne Ostrow at the Denver Post, Tim Cuprisin of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. And the guys in Chicago: Robert Feder at the Sun-Times and Phil Rosenthal at the Tribune. Some have moved on to other beats, or other publications. And Cuprisin lost his battle with melanoma last year. A couple are still around, including Baltimore Sun‘s David Zurawik. And we are fortunate to have the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Gail Shister in our line-up.

And there was always Aaron Barnhart of the Kansas City Star. His TVBarn column would often include an interesting angle about cable news we hadn’t covered or an interview with a TV news personality worth picking up.

It turns out Barnhart has gone off the grid apparently for health reasons. So when a local blogger began asking questions about his whereabouts, it touched a nerve and today Jim Romenesko asks if it’s “anybody’s business” where he is and why?

[Star "watchdog" John] Landsberg tells me that reaction to his Barnhart column “has been mixed” and that “some people think it is a fair question to ask about a prominent columnist who simply virtually disappears for several months. Others consider it a private matter.”

The Baltimore Sun‘s David Zurawik talks with Michael Steele about the former RNC chairman’s new job: MSNBC contributor. Here’s what Steele says he won’t be:

“I have every confidence that MSNBC will treat me with the level of respect they have obviously shown by hiring me. I mean, why would you bring me on board just to say, ‘OK, this is now our conservative punching bag for the next year.’?”

“That’s not going to achieve the goals that I know Phil Griffin and the Comcast team have in mind for expanding the reach and the depth of the discussion on the network,” he explained. “It certainly doesn’t achieve my goals, to be a punching bag, because, Lord knows, after two punches, you get the joke. ‘Like I’m done. Enough already.’”

Former MSNBC correspondent/anchor David Shuster went on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” yesterday to talk about the abrupt departure of Keith Olbermann Friday night. In addition to getting into it a couple times with Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik, Shuster got one fact wrong. He said that under Comcast, MSNBC president Phil Griffin will report to NBC News boss  Steve Capus, instead of reporting directly to NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker. But an MSNBC spokesperson tells us Griffin has reported to Capus since he was named MSNBC president in July 2008, as TVNewser reported at the time.

The Washington Post‘s Howard Kurtz writes about the “Crossfire Culture” of cable news, and journalism in general. While ostensibly it is about the current state of journalism, it is hard to ignore the focus on cable news pundits:

Cable news channels were pioneers in vituperation, as politicians learned they were more likely to get invited back by breathing fire. The rise of highly opinionated hosts at Fox and MSNBC helped fuel the trend, as has the invasion of pols-turned-pundits — Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, James Carville, Eliot Spitzer — who have blurred the distinction between us (the journalists) and them (those we cover).

And later:

[Bill] O’Reilly regularly portrays his network as the antidote to hopelessly biased rivals: “If you want to know what’s really happening in America, you have to come here because you will not get it in much of the mainstream media.” His chief antagonist, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, said Sherrod’s reputation had been “assassinated by Fox News” and “that scum Breitbart,” but he did not spare what he called “the cowering media, this network included.”

The article seems to draw from a discussion Kurtz had on his Sunday CNN program, “Reliable Sources:”

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CNN’s “Reliable Sources” had a segment with awfully quick turnaround this morning.

Host Howard Kurtz brought on Kansas City Star television critic Aaron Barnhart to discuss Christiane Amanpour‘s debut as host of ABC’s ‘This Week’, barely an hour after it aired.

Said Barnhart:

Well, I think she played to her strengths as a well-prepared researcher, someone who comes loaded for bear for her interviews. These were gets that were — they were published on the Web ahead of time. We could watch much of the segments ahead of time.

So, that part is the known quantity about Christiane. The unknown quantity is the back half of the show, which is the roundtable, where she’s expected to let her guests sort of hold forth and move the news agenda forward. And in that, she seemed a little less ready for the new environment she was thrown into there.

Update: From Barnhart, who writes in from Beverly Hills: “I wasn’t in Kansas City for the segment, I was in LA on TV critics press tour, meaning that I watched the East Coast feed at CNN’s bureau at 6 a.m.! Still, when you compare it to Oscars night – where my review is due about two minutes after the ceremony ends – this was a walk in the park.”

The program also discussed the hyper-partisan state of cable news earlier today, referencing the Shirley Sherrod case and the New Black Panther party coverage, among other topics.

Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik, former CNN exec turned George Washington University professor Frank Sesno, Former USA Today managing editor Lauren Ashburn and CBS News White House correspondent Chip Reid talked about the rhetoric.

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This weekend on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” host Howard Kurtz talked with The Daily Beast’s Tina Brown, former CBS Evening News EP Rome Hartman, and the Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik about last week’s announcement from ABC that Charlie Gibson would be stepping down from “World News” and that Diane Sawyer would be filling the anchor position. The panel discussed Gibson’s tenure, Sawyer’s qualifications, and women in the evening news chair.

Embedded video from CNN Video

Excerpts from two reviews of Wednesday night‘s ABC News special “Questions for the President: Prescription for America”:

• The Washington Post‘s Howard Kurtz says that, despite being criticized “as an Obama ‘infomercial’ before a single moment had aired…it was a pretty good look at a complicated issue.”

But Kurtz does have his “quibbles. The president was allowed to give long answers, with [Charles] Gibson interrupting only a couple times.” And “I would have included a Republican member of Congress” on the program.

• The Baltimore Sun‘s David Zurawik writes: “Let’s make one thing clear right from the start: ABC News did not give President Barack Obama a free pass in its prime-time special.”

But, he says, “Obama had his way from early morning to late night on ABC Wednesday to push his agenda for massive social change on healthcare. In short, he owned ABC’s airwaves.”

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is back in the news today on several fronts.

The LA Times picks up on a story first reported on TVNewser about Maddow’s ratings drop. The “breakout star on cable” has seen her “numbers cool,” writes Yvonne Villarreal.

Maddow says she’s not concerned how the new administration may affect ratings. “My job of asking questions and being critical doesn’t stop depending on who is in the White House,” she says. “My main concern is keeping the quality of the show high. We don’t debate the ratings very much.”

The Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik gives his take on the LAT story: “I am just as troubled by Maddow’s brand of ideologically driven partisan propaganda as I am by that of Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity on Fox,” he writes.

Maddow also spoke with Rick Bentley for McClatchy Newspapers about the style of her show: “I certainly have give-and-take with my guests,” she says. “But it’s going to be one-on-one. It’s going to be civil. I’m not going to tell anybody to shut up unless they say something about my mom or something else that I can’t control myself about.”

As we reported yesterday, Chris Matthews addressed the “oh God” comment during Hardball last night. See what he said, and some reaction below:

• Howard Kurtz wrote about the comment in the context of Republicans reaction to Gov. Bobby Jindal‘s response speech. “Not very professional,” he wrote of Matthews. “But not very far off from what others — including many conservatives — are saying about the non-SOTU non-response by the governor of Louisiana.”

• The Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik thought “MSNBC management had banished Matthews and Keith Olbermann from the anchor desk during grown-up political events.” But, he writes, “There was the partisan Democrat Matthews acting stupid and showing off Tuesday — making his little oh-was-the-microphone-open remark and hopelessly contextualizing anything of value that Jindal might have said. (Not that Jindal needed any help in being a train wreck.)”

• And for something entirely different: FNC’s Red Eye ombudsman Andy Levy offered his take on what Matthews meant when he said “oh God.” Click continued to see the clip…

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As networks were looking for correspondents on the ground to cover the attacks in Mumbai Wednesday, FBN had someone to talk to — reporter Jeff Flock‘s daughter, Elizabeth Flock. Flock is in Mumbai working for Forbes Magazine, and called in with reports of the situation.

At the end of the segment, anchor Liz Claman told her, “We just got word from your dad, who’s reporting from O’Hare…He wants you to know that he loves you.”

When news of the terror attacks broke, CNBC’s Erin Burnett had flashbacks. Burnett was in India in May, when bombs went off in the city of Jaipur. In fact, Burnett reported from and stayed at two of the places attacked on Wednesday.

BBC World News America was one of the first networks with a reporter on the ground in Mumbai yesterday. Anchor Matt Frei also spoke with one of the hotel guests hiding at the Taj Mahal hotel.

According to a TVEyes search, Fox Business was first to report the story at 1:06pmET Wednesday. Anchor Stuart Varney attributed the news to The Wall Street Journal; MSNBC went into rolling coverage at 1:26; Bloomberg reported the news at 1:31; CNBC at 1:40 and CNN at 1:41 and FNC at 1:46.