TODAY I OPENED MICHAEL KELLY’S POSTHUMOUS BOOK, Things Worth Fighting For, and came straight to this passage:

I used to watch television news, but at some point between the time CBS married Westinghouse, NBC married General Electric, and ABC married Mickey Mouse, I sort of lost interest.

I don’t think that corporatization was the only thing to hurt TV news, but I don’t think it helped.

UPDATE: Reader Michael Nolin emails:

It took almost a full year before I stopped thinking first thing every Wednesday morning, “Oh good, it’s Michael Kelly column day.” He was great. He would have been all over Rathergate.

I think that’s right.