Mark Steyn refuses to be asphyxiated by the media’s smog of negativity in a new column about sweeps month, and Ted Koppel’s gravitas: Don’t count on Koppel for whole war story. (Hat tip: Connecticut Yankee.)

According to Ted Koppel, dragging his gravitas like a ball and chain, “The most important thing a journalist can do is remind people of the cost of war.”

So on Friday night on ABC he read out the names of the American men and women to die in Iraq.

Is reminding people of the “cost of war” really the most important thing a journalist can do? Costs don’t exist in a vacuum, but relative to their benefits. For example, the cost of Ted Koppel to ABC is said to be $6 million per year. That sounds a lot when you consider that Skip, the busboy at Denny’s, would be happy to do it for $28,000, but cost alone doesn’t factor in the benefits of Ted’s distinctive portentousness.

Likewise, the cost of war is a tragedy for the families of the American, British and other coalition forces who’ve died in the last year. But we owe it to the dead, always, every day, to measure their sacrifice against the mission, its aims, its successes, its setbacks. And, if the cause is still just, then you honor the fallen by pressing on to victory — and then reading the roll call of the dead.

If that doesn’t quite have the sweeps-month ratings appeal “Nightline” is looking for, since Ted has now established himself as a $6 million list reader he might like to remind people of the comparative costs of war. At two seconds per name, to read out the combat deaths of the War of 1812 he’d have to persuade ABC to extend the show to an hour and a quarter. To read out the combat deaths of the Korean War, he’d need a 19-hour show. For World War II, he’d have to get ABC to let him read out names of the dead 24/7 for an entire week. If he wants to, I’d be happy to fly him to London so he can go on the BBC and read out the names of the 3,097,392 British combat deaths in World War I, which would take him the best part of three months, without taking bathroom breaks, or indeed pausing for breath.