Years-old unintentional hilarity

So apparently Anderson Cooper criticized some of his cable news colleagues for their ridiculous, non-stop coverage of the Anna Nicole Smith saga. Let me say, first off, that, contra Rachel, I don't think it's hypocritical to have run a segment or two on a ridiculous story and then to criticize others for wall-to-wall coverage of said story. But that's not why we're here.

In writing it up, Rachel linked back to an item of hers from 2005, which in turn took me to this TVNewser post about Cooper criticizing his competitors for their coverage of the Natalee Holloway story. Here's what one of Brian Stelter's e-mailers -- and his correspondents tend to be well-informed watchers of the industry, if not actually in the business themselves -- had to say:

"This excerpt is exactly why CNN is in 3rd place," an e-mailer says: "Until something else happens, until there really are developments, we'll leave the rest to the other guys."

Can you imagine? Waiting until something "happens" or "until there really are developments" to report something? Those fools! {Scoff} Get a clue, guys.

Luckily, since 2005, CNN has mostly taken this guy's advice.