Did you HEAR?! The violence in Sudan's Kordofan Province worsened overnight!

I think I can say without a doubt that every single person in America was talking about the Crocodile Hunter this weekend. Maybe you were off in a desert on a solo death ride or something, but you sure as hell heard about it first thing when you got back.

It was the conversational shocker at the family party with my in-laws in Wisconsin. It was the buzz of the airport. Even the Scottish teenagers were talking about it in the forums of my favorite online zombie game.

And who can blame them/us/everybody? It's a great story. An international adventure icon, an Errol Flynn throwback to the days of pith helmets, is stabbed in the heart. To death. By a STINGRAY.

So it was with a loudly confused "bwah?" that I noted this excerpt today from Howard Kurtz's media chat at WashingtonPost.com.

Washington, D.C.: I find it bizarre, depressing, and not just a little telling about the sorry state of American TV news that Steve Irwin led the NBC news last night. I know he's a high-profile guy, and I don't quibble with the story being included in the news, but come on. Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan... These are somehow less important than Irwin's death and examining the new threat of sting rays?

Howard Kurtz: Two words: Labor Day. Look, I wouldn't have led with it -- and I wonder if Brian Williams would have if he hadn't had the day off-- but there was not a lot of hard news yesterday.

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. I spent years trying to explain to people what's wrong with American newspapers. And it's right there, tied in a little elitist bun.

People want intrigue and excitement from their newspapers. They want stories they can buzz about, stories that stick with them. They don't want heinously boring, broad-stroke journalism with headlines like "Compromise hopes dim as Iran dismisses sanction threats."

God bless him, but the Croc Hunter dying is a great story. It's a frigging Doc Savage dime novel, and I've been following it like a vulture over a limping chubby hiker. But alas, until newspapers learn that great stories aren't defined by geopolitical impact, they'll just keep dwindling into irrelevance like a grumpy racist uncle shaking his fist on the porch.