My nominee for the most sycophantic media columnist of the year is Yvonne Wingett of The Arizona Republic.

Here’s the lead paragraph of her profile of CNN’s Soledad O’Brien:

“If you’re anything like me in the morning, you race around to make espresso and straighten your hair, with one ear on your cellphone, the other on CNN’s Soledad O’Brien.”

Is there anyone else like you, Yvonne?

The fawning continues:

As co-host of American Morning, O’Brien is one of few Latinas in broadcast news. I’ve watched her cover some of this generation’s most important stories, from Hurricane Katrina to the tsunami in Thailand.

And she looks so good doing it. As the daughter of immigrants (her father is an Australian of Irish ancestry, her mother is a Black Cubana) she has perfect – and I mean perfect – genes.

She is, in my mind, the Penelope Cruz of journalism. I caught up with her last weekend while she was in town to speak at the American Medical Association’s Medical Communications Conference in downtown Phoenix. I was so star-struck, I can’t remember the first few minutes of our conversation. But here’s part of our 45-minute conversation…

Um, no thanks.