We need new pundits, too
Good grief! What is wrong with these people? You see the crowd, you see the principles, (Obama and crew), you see hope, optimism, love, kindness, concern for our neighbors, etc. Then, they cut to some overfed blowhard that says something out of (normally) right field. Espousing cynicism and dripping with malevolence and pettiness from the comfort of their 11,000 sq. ft. Maryland homes, nonsense which is--without variance--doom and gloom.
These fat, spoiled, windbags haven't been right about ANYTHING in a long time. They are clueless and I am tired of hearing them. All of them.
They need to be replaced--tonight--by some thoughtful, articulate, intelligent, well-read, and real working Americans from all walks of life, that pull down salaries closer to the National Average.
Who do these pundits speak for anyway? They don't speak for me or anyone I know.
Time for a change.
Ban the bogus! Boycott idiots.
Thanks.
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But Bwak, that would mean I cant watch tv anymore.
I am ready. But they have to send me a plane ticket and some money for clothes.
oh and a haircut. and some cigs--keeps my neat voice raspy kind of. I have to thi nk about this.
January 20, 2009 8:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
hum
I haz nuttin to send, but hope and good will. I would send you fine tobacco and aged whiskey and Kegs of beer if'n I could. The pundits could, but they're too busy being banal.
It's poison.
January 20, 2009 8:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
No Bwak, I want to be a pundit and I am trying to figure out how much money they would have to pay me
January 20, 2009 8:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
You alrady ARE a pundit, dd! A TPM pundit. What more could anyone want?
January 20, 2009 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
A decent lifestyle, not fancy, mind, free from CONSTANT worry.
You know, like we USED to have?
January 20, 2009 9:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
How right you are, bwak. But I was responding only to the "pundit" part. Yes, let us make sure all people have health care and jobs and homes and the laws are upheld and enforced.
January 21, 2009 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ah ha! You do it now for free! You are a natural. Warm, witty and REAL. Unlike them.
I say you should make $65,000, just for your output here. That's not chickenfeed. Unless one is an overpaid, smelly PUNDIT.
(Josh is excluded, er, of course)
January 20, 2009 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love your spirit, bwak!
January 20, 2009 8:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
(leftover spirits from New Years), and well worth the wait.
:D
January 20, 2009 8:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is a whole profession for telling puns? Who'd a thunk it?
January 20, 2009 9:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wot? If that's what they are supposed to be doing, then they really stink at doing it.
January 20, 2009 9:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
No Marq. You misunderstand. For telling punds.
There is a difference.
A pun is a statement that has two or more meanings.
A pund is some cliche that is meaningless.
See the difference?
January 20, 2009 9:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're so punny...
January 20, 2009 9:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guest I will punt.
January 20, 2009 9:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought he was kind of tall, but everything looks kinda tall to me.
January 20, 2009 9:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Amen, Bwakfat. I was thinking the same thing today. Couldn't find a single channel where any pundit said anything smart, let alone relevant.
January 20, 2009 9:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Even the radio drove me nuts. Ted Koppel "sounding a nicely measured not of alarm, and possibly..... something else?" on NPR. It got to the point where I was yelling at the radio to take more calls in. The regular people were more pertinent, upbeat, and amusing.
Nice to see you. Been busy?
January 20, 2009 9:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah there is no other place to write this Buwak.
I am watching Barack yet again at one of those galas speaking to the troops, here and elsewhere and watching him dance with his dream Harvard wife and now he is dancing with a female NCO. He smiles and he is cool and he speaks a few paragraphs and he asks the audience to applaud remarks from a small group of soldiers on screen and he is my President.
Turn off the sound and type.
January 20, 2009 9:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Gasket, Bwak. I turn the tv on maybe once a week. Just to make sure I'm not nuts. 15 minutes if usually enough to satisfy me on that front. Lovely stuff to look at today, O's speech good, coupla laughs, but mostly.... the pictures of all the people were good to see, and I got a chance to give Bush the finger as he took off.
Sounds off again now. Hopeless. The only breed I hold more disdain for than the GOP and the financiers (and 99.7% of economists) are the media. Just... appalling. And people wonder why people are moving toward the internet. Hell, Wonkette's comments on Cheney in the wheelchair were 100 times better than anything those buffoons come up with.
- How quickly he loses his strength without his government-provided supply of innocent babies to eat.
- I’ve seen a lot of spinals, Dude, and this guy is a fake.
- I think we can coin a phrase: Cheney just went “the Full Strangelove.”
- If only a bumper sticker on the back of his chair said ‘My other vehicle is a paddy wagon.’
- What would have made this video perfect was a steaming colostomy bag flopping onto the sidewalk as he was helped into the limo.
- MEIN FUHRER! I CAN VALK!
See? Now THAT made me feel better!
January 20, 2009 10:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Quinn, I tried to tell this to somebody else today.
But they didn't listen, look:
its in the water, THEY put it in the water
They are attempting to steal our precious bodily fluids.
January 20, 2009 10:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
(Hush, Q is in on it--it's the canadians and their geese)
January 20, 2009 10:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
*smile* I too, gave Bush the finger throughout his national exit. There's no more eloquent way to describe the depth of my feelings for him.
Bwak - Your post fully describes why so many of us have abandoned 'network television' in favor of our home grown pundits here in the ether.
January 20, 2009 10:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I haven't watched it regularly for 10 or 15 years, longer even. I was always a reader.
I guess that is why I just can't stand them. It's shocking how awful they are.
January 20, 2009 10:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Same here. I got cable during the first Gulf War just so I could see what was going on. Kept it for about 6 months and dropped it. The only things I would watch anyway are available via the ether within 24 hours of their original cablecast.
January 20, 2009 10:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good to see you survived the trip, dude. And glad you got the chance to see the Bush exit. I saw there were giant shoe-throwing booths set up in the Middle East, Mexico, etc. Gotta say, saw some good arms out there. Even a coupla southpaws.
There's money to be made in these booths. Travel town-to-town, have big vinyl pictures of your anti-faves made up - Cheney, Rummie, heck even a Reagan or Nixon for old-timers -then flip 'em down to get the crowd excited. Maybe a bit of tinny voice-over from their greatest hits. $5 a throw.
Then you take a radar gun along, and if some kid's really bringing the heat... hey, call the Cubbies. Sign 'em up for 30% of the signing bonus.
And then, package the kids up into CDO's & MRL's & aABC's and auction them through an offshore.... Ok. Sorry.
Flashback.
January 21, 2009 9:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
'O's speech good?
I was heartened at the sight of a third of the crowd walking off before he completed that pathetic speech.
I heard he was writing it himself, and without help, but didn't believe it. When it was over I had no doubt he had written it. It was the first time I'd ever heard him tell the truth!!! Hope it's a trend!!
Listening to the radio, I missed the introduction of the 'poet'. About half way through that rant, it occurred to me I was familiar with the thought pattern,,, yes!! it had to be quinn esq I was listening to!!!
I was so disappointed, it was the first time I've been wrong about anything in years.
January 21, 2009 11:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
You come off like Dana "Shiner" Perino, saying we won't see Ryder trucks pulling up to the WH for the Crawford Clown...while, at that very moment, a Ryder truck was spotted on the grounds loading up The Decider's crap.
Much like the Bushies, and John McCain's press team, you can't even tell a lie correctly.
January 21, 2009 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I see no relevance whatsoever.
January 21, 2009 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Looking in the mirror again, are you?
January 21, 2009 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Open your eyes, and your vision should improve dramatically.
Just don't do it in front of a mirror. No reason to damage a perfectly good looking-glass.
January 21, 2009 12:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
We KNOW! Truth is completely irrelevant to you. Where do you get a figure like one-third leaving? Was that on FOX? I believe even FOX recognized the greatness of the movement. I suppose big things scare you. I suppose you are not familiar with anything big. Probably just very, very small things like you spric.
January 21, 2009 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
The gallant troll hunters.
=D
January 21, 2009 8:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
You give republicans a bad name. Please, think before posting stuff like this before you taint all of us by association.
January 21, 2009 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm a registered democrat. Don't worry about me sullying myself by joining your party. Too many assholes in it to suit me.
January 21, 2009 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. Fooled me. Just goes to prove my belief that the far left and far right wings of this country sound exactly alike.
January 21, 2009 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
You must be exceptionally dull witted if you're not embarrassed admitting membership in an organization that includes the Bushes and John McCretin.
January 21, 2009 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I figured I would take on the challenge of returning the party to the roots embodied in Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. I would be embarrassed to claim the same party that bred Bill Clinton and betrayed Jimmy Carter, its last true progressive.
January 21, 2009 8:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, and if you believe anything that this dolt says is true, then you might want to buy this John McCain inauguration tie pin!
A registered Democrat! what a hoot! spric wants to be a wit, but is only half-way there!
January 21, 2009 7:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
He could be from the extreme wing of either party and be indistinguishable in tone and tenor.
January 21, 2009 8:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
When was the last time you heard anyone on the "far left" call someone a Marxist?
January 21, 2009 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Guys...this is a certifiable troll...you are feeding him. Please stop and he will go look for food elsewhere. He admitted in another comment that his goal is to jack everyone up. He is succeeding, and will continue his filth as long as he does.
January 21, 2009 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cosigned and seconded. Why do people respond? I'm always amazed that otherwise extra-smart people on TPM take the bait.
January 21, 2009 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's like picking a scab... It might get infected but sometimes it just feels good to indulge in some frenzied scratching.
January 21, 2009 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Picking Scabs is the perfect metaphor for feeding trolls!
January 21, 2009 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm a scab picker myself, but I am REALLY resisting the urge to give this guy any play...he has not added one positive comment to any discussion as far as I can tell. He's here purely to be a divisive and disruptive voice...If everyone wants to keep him around as a sort of curiosity, I can live w/ his obnoxiousness...I would just hate for anyone to be laboring under the false impression that he can be made to see the light...That's not why he's here.
January 21, 2009 7:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, that's only on the Huffpost. These are all my friends here.
January 21, 2009 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bwak, this just in. Achilles has killed Hector in a mighty battle and dragged Hector's body around the great walls of Troy and back to his camp in a most unseemly manner.
I could detect determination upon our hero's face but it also appeared that the vengeance accomplished here will in no way allay Achilles pain.
Think of this as a tryout for pundit. CNN or MSNBC. How about SAGE in Amarillo?
January 20, 2009 10:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Win.
Also.
You're hired. Can you carry a tune, in case it's a slow news day?
=D
January 20, 2009 10:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Achilles looks like he's got a great future ahead of him, Dick. I just can't see anything stopping him on his inevitable march toward becoming Lord God Boofoo over all.
In fact, I'll go out on a limb here, and predict he'll be with us for a long, long time.
January 20, 2009 11:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I will get back to you on that. There appears to be some pretty boy running around with a bow, calls himself Paris. He might be one of those 'switch hitters' so to speak. I mean left or right handed, if you know what I mean. Like Micky Mantle, if you know what I mean.
This Paris guy is kind of lurking, lurking with intent to loiter and he was Hector's brother, if you know what i mean. and...
I will check back later. And Achilles better check his back later, also.
January 20, 2009 11:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
.
Injustice Department Refuses to 'Splain Anything
Byline: seashell
December 2006.
According to the local Injustice Department (ID), Achilles is a well known heel who is suspected of Hectoring to death at least three others in the local area.
Republicans, however, deny that Hector is the perp. Instead, they believe that Hector's brother, Paris, is the actual culprit. Citing executive secrecy as their basis for revealing no facts, senior non-administration officials strongly hint that the answers lie in the juxtaposition of Trojans in the drugstore and Paris in the Hilton.
More will be revealed after the special prosecutor presents her case to the grandiose jury. Or not.
Byline: seashell
January 21, 2009 1:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
A day at the Washington Monument, incredible
A day at TPM with puppy dog, PRICELESS
January 21, 2009 5:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
And don't you forget it, either. :-)
January 21, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Also. Seashell rawks.
January 21, 2009 8:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nah, once the pundits start spouting about the Patroclus connection, there'll be more innuendo than any hero could overcome on cable TV.
January 21, 2009 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
You guys are hilarious! I'll be a punditer too. If dd is worth $65k, I should at least be worth a cool fitty!
January 21, 2009 12:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
You're cool. You're in!
January 21, 2009 10:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh and Bwak, I do not know where else to write this either but
I HATE FATHEAD LOU DOBBS
Thanks, I had to get that out of my system.
January 21, 2009 12:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
He's a decietful SOB suggesting he's an independent. He's Republican through and through. He's nothing more then a racist, ethnocentric, blowhard.
January 21, 2009 3:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
I love it when he speaks of 'ethnocentric interests'
Sounds like a fathead who likes to sneak into his office and watch Hispanic porno films.
January 21, 2009 5:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you've got anything against ethnocentric interests, you must have been appalled with that last prayer, invoking whites to do what's right.
With his lot committing more than half the violent crime in the country,, well,,, I guess in the mind of an innate savage, that's doing what's right.
January 21, 2009 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Innate savage?
FOAD, racist asshole.
January 21, 2009 12:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I see TOG is on PrickWatch™ today. :-)
January 21, 2009 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
It didn't learn from the beating of a while ago, did it?
January 21, 2009 12:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know. S'prick is such worm. I had him over last night to see if he was cute enough to keep him around. Not by half! Besides, his a@# is worn out already and he can't s^%$k a d&^k worth s%$#t. I say we toss him out with yesterdays newspaper.
January 21, 2009 12:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's really nasty and mean-spirited, CL.
After all, yesterday's newspaper has plenty of uses. It should only be tossed out long after you've chloroformed, defenestrated, drawn, quartered and flayed (s)pric.
January 21, 2009 1:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aah yes! Defenestration! Such an underused method of deposing one's washed-up dictatorial refuse.
January 21, 2009 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lou is the keeper of the Two Minutes of Hate That Somehow Takes Sixty Minutes to Relate.
January 21, 2009 9:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Who do these pundits speak for anyway?"
Well they speak for the interests who represent predatory personal and corporate wealth in America silly! You know, the people who own the airwaves.
January 21, 2009 2:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, the one thing these pundits could not say out loud is the "other thing" we were all thinking about the inauguration. It meant "The End to bushco and a huge sigh of relief to see the criminals leave the stage." And no tv pundit could say that! The day had two moments. TV only recognized one of them.
January 21, 2009 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's tiresome, irksome and pathetic how so many of the talking-head gasbags fail to see anything new that's happening until about 6-8 months after the fact. Faced with new or novel events, people or experiences, they shuffle through their stained index cards and spout the first cliche that is peripherally related to what's happening. They are trapped in impoverished, creaking, outworn conceptual frames that they feel compelled to impose on everything that moves.
So stoopid! Yo pundoids - shut the fuck up and look/listen/think before you spout!
We must continue to freely mock them!
January 21, 2009 9:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why don't we band together and form a company which provides better pundits to media companies, in the same way Brent Bozell and the Conservative types bullied and pushed their way onto media outlets twenty-plus years ago. The triumph of their media manipulation/intimidation lasted from Reagan till now. So, I figure that if we start right away, we could provide the future gas-bag pundits that people will want to get rid of in 2039.
January 21, 2009 9:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
I know you're probably thinking of progressives, but I nominate spric to intern with Limbaugh, or maybe with Savage!
January 21, 2009 9:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just make sure not to send any lube along.
January 21, 2009 10:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
I like it. We could do media coaching and everything. Get 'em really "camera-ready" first, you know...
January 21, 2009 10:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think you'll have long to worry about agenda oriented media. The big three networks are losing audience by the droves, most the big city liberal rags are on the ropes. The NYT is cruising to bankruptcy.
But on the bright side Fox is continuing it's ratings climb. Listenership in talk radio is exploding, looks like you're right. Folks are just getting tired of that socialist drivel.
January 21, 2009 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, most of the big-city dailies are making money, if you remove from their budgets the massive debt service incurred by their right-wing, corporate masters who leveraged takeovers of these papers to the hilt. It isn't audience that's driving them to their knees, it's the whip of right-wing greed.
January 21, 2009 11:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wow!!! what unbelievably convoluted reasoning!!
January 21, 2009 12:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
spric, just because your simple mind fails to grasp the reality of this situation does not equate it to being unbelievable convoluted reasoning. It is merely beyond your grasp. It is believable if you can understand it.
January 21, 2009 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just look at their circulation numbers and stock prices of the public companies. Both trending the same direction. Down. Har har har
January 21, 2009 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now look at their profits.
harharhar
January 21, 2009 8:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to be contrary, but it hardly the right-wing who is purely responsible for the greed of leveraging companies to personally profit. That has been a bipartisan free-for-all.
January 21, 2009 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fox ratings have been falling for years as have talk radio, though the Big 3 have fallen off a bit (yet still lead everything on cable by huge margins) in recent years. You really need to get out more if you want to have something thoughtful to contribute to the debate. Parroting Rush's latest fantasy is hardly the place to start.
January 21, 2009 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jason, hate to bother you, and forget about spric, he thinks he is a gadfly or something. Irrelevant, believe me. At least if you are arguing with CT or MCB, they read books and stuff.
What I wish to know is where you receive the info that Right Wing radio and Tv is falling off. I hear snippets all the time. I know Rachel is beating Sean. I know that Keith is close to O'Reilly and actually beating him in some age grade system.
At any rate I am interested in this because the election returns have demonstrated a change it is just that kids (anybody under 30) does not really watch cable news anyway--brownberries, web pc, iphones, etc.
January 21, 2009 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's kind of what I am getting at. Cable TV's viewers are getting older while the new generation of audiences is moving online.
I would have to do a lot more research to find the actual numbers, but common sense would tell me that as the country becomes less polarized, those pundits who seek to divide us will continue to fall off. The fringes seem to have been the ones dictating the conversations on both sides of the fence for a long time now.
Maybe the reason why us "kids" are moving to new sources of information is that we are tired of the constant warfare.
January 21, 2009 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
The warfare doesn't bother me, but the people have finally woken up to the need for their participation in the process. As they returned to vigilance they realized what the Reich was selling was total BS. To shallow, superficial people, the pictures of the Reich's pundits and their loud mouths impressed people they were stronger, but those pundits are not honest and the people have come to see that. There are a few dead-enders who will never leave them, but by and large, with more people getting involved, their ideology has been revealed as so much BS. It is NOT in the best interests of the people to perpetuate their line of thought, i.e. it is in the best interests of the people to have a system where they get more then a trickle.
January 21, 2009 3:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it is less a matter of waking up as it is a matter of a generational shift. If you look at the "dead enders" on either side of the equation (meaning those who accept the official story, whatever it is) they trend toward the upper end of the age spectrum. It is typically the youth who are ready to embrace paradigm shifts, no matter when they happen.
January 21, 2009 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
The youth are not embracing a paradigm shift. They never bought the paradigm in the first place. It existed before their birth. I think the youth are simply more willing to call BS. I think the older folks fail to realize that their influence is waning. I'm wondering and hoping if the greatness of the greatest generation, if that greatness skipped a generation, like some other inherited behaviors. I am more hoping then wondering if this is so. :-{)>
January 21, 2009 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps, though it is hard to pinpoint that moment in which the scales fell from my eyes.
I was complacent (as was most of Gen X) for more years than I have been awake and paying attention. Seems to me that a paradigm shift had to have occurred else we wouldn't be in this place. For the "youth" the shift was that one could actually make a difference if they voted. That has never happened in my two decades of being able to vote.
Paradigm shift? Never bought it in the first place? I suppose an argument could be made either way.
January 21, 2009 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Jason. Maybe we could hire that kid who wanted a c-note. hahahah. I am going to check nielson and some other ratings. But, yes, you are correct. If there was one tech symbol this entire election cycle, it has been the brownberry.
January 21, 2009 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
PS: Never a bother to chew the fat with a fellow progressive. :O)
January 21, 2009 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll tell you why you shouldn't. Cause it would go broke, just like Air America. No one can stand to listen to socialists because socialists have to lie to support their positions.
But don't let me discourage you, I'll listen. Just like I listened to Air America before they started wanting me to pay for it. Go for it, I bet you have few takers on your IPO.
January 21, 2009 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't be such a jerk.
January 21, 2009 7:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bwak
Would you ask the Sun to stop shining
Would you ask the dog to quit panting
Would you ask Brit Hume to reevaluate anything
Would you ask the hummingbird to quit humming
Would you ask the hippo to cease spewing excrement
These are deep questions that must be examined
But if you desire an answer to a specific question do not talk to Mr.Spric.
January 21, 2009 7:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yessir. I am doing so with a large, thorny stick.
January 21, 2009 8:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think we'll start seeing a better class of pundit soon. Audience expectations usually drive that discussion. As more and more people tune out the Corporate Media and tune in the Blogosphere, television will modify format accordingly. I suspect we'll start seeing a lot more Internet pundits moving to TV as this trend picks up speed.
I am hoping to get my web-based radio program going this year when I can afford the investment to set up my home studio. See if I can't break into syndication via that route. That's when you can really make a nice living from being an opinionated asshole. I am just as loquacious in person as I am on TPM, so I don't anticipate any dead air.
Until we see that transition, though, I'll be spending the bulk of my news and opinion "viewing" time at TPM with only occasional forays into television land.
January 21, 2009 9:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just for fun, yesterday I used my dual-tuner DVR to record two channels simultaneously.
The first was CNN's inauguration coverage. The second was C-SPAN's inauguration coverage.
Watched them for about four hours last night. CNN's so jam-packed with bloviators that you couldn't even hear the VIP announcements on the platform. I especially wanted to shut Wolf Blitzer's trap with some rusty staples. And if I have to hear David Gergen or Suzanne Malveaux one more time...*smolder*
*breathe deeply* OK...better now.
C-SPAN, on the other hand, was a wonderful broadcast. Very little commentary, and absolutely no talking heads from the beginning of VIP arrival through the time the Crawford Clown left for Andrews.
January 21, 2009 11:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm...last graf cut off from above.
Maybe *new* pundits isn't the problem. Maybe just *fewer* (or even *no*) pundits. :-)
January 21, 2009 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
All Hail CSPAN!!!
=D
January 21, 2009 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
**donning tinfoil hat**
And to think I was going to bitch about CSPAN's "editorial" tweaking of the microphone to pick up crowd noise at "appropriate" points in the speech. Who the hell do they think they are to decide when to include applause?
**doffing tinfoil hat**
January 21, 2009 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just remember to attach your ground cable!
January 21, 2009 12:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Poundits...
January 21, 2009 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Heehee!
January 21, 2009 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee!
January 21, 2009 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about ABC saying during the inauguration how "hard" Obama was on Bush during the campaign.
Oh waaaaaaaaaaaa, Obama was "very hard on Bush."
Poor whittle Bushie.
Gosh ABC. And tell us along with every other "corporate media channel" why weren't you?
January 21, 2009 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
With so many unemployed, who's getting it hard ... still??? Bush gets a pension after all his failures. That's it! I'm running in 2016! If Palin is all they can offer, I'm pretty sure I can win, unless they steal it.
January 22, 2009 2:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
They need to be replaced by a chicken.
January 21, 2009 2:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
A rooster might have more "presence"
January 21, 2009 7:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Realistically, if the cable channels continue to have an almost 24-hour programming format, they will just have to have pundits to fill up the air space. For example, the only war coverage amounts to reporters standing on a balcony explaining what happened in the last day, the "war reporting" is over in about 2 minutes. If they don't fill in the time with "experts" bloviating about what they think will happen, or what 'this' really meant, or what 'that' really says about the Obama administration, they could only fill about 90 minutes a day with actual news.
Although I would truly appreciate some follow-up reporting of events, like Enron (where is Mrs. Ken Lay these days?), or Katrina (most follow-ups are documentary style, rather than recurrent newsclips of events; that style of "news" seems to be over. Now 'news' is what Pat Buchanan thinks Obama might have to do to make republicans happy; or what Lou Dobbs believes is the latest travesty done by a Mexican.
Rarely do we have exposure to world events, even the ones that have an effect on us. The only place I hear about the brewing civil war in Mexico is on NPR or the BBC when there is a a report about the latest batch of beheadings; I know little about it except that it seems to be drug-related. Even the pundits are pretty quiet on this rising boil of a problem.
Well, thankfully, Tucker Carlson seems to be silent for the moment; if Pat Buchanan and his creepy sister depart the world will be a better place. Surely there are new faces and voices of people who have done some studying of the world more recently than the Buchanans. On any given night, I could probably tell you a paragraph ahead of Pat B's verbiage on any topic, and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two of us. I would just have to say a few racist things, cloaked in a 'sad, but true' voice, and then finish up with a laugh.
David Gregory? Even more predictable. Tweety? I have to admit he surprises me from time to time, but his ego gets in the way of his job too often, and his love affair with Tom DeLay sickens me. Rachel is a bright spot, but she is better when giving thoughtful responses; her 'cute' personna on her show is hard to watch. Keith is also great with his essays; he needs to leave his childish feud with O'Reilly in the dustbin of the dustbin.
Oh, well. I'm starting to sound like a pundit myself so I'll stop.
So glad this is January 21st! (I do wish he had not chosen Geithner. I don't believe for a minute he didn't try to get away without paying those taxes -- and he almost did!)!
January 21, 2009 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
hahahahahahahahahah! I thought she was his wife!
January 21, 2009 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
His wife is much creepier! A blonde beehive republican clone. I have never heard her speak one word, as is fitting for repub wives. Baye, his sister is a bigmouth who is now channeling Palin (even copied her glasses!). She is a joke, but she still gets hired on as a "pundit."
January 21, 2009 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cloning Paul Krugman would be a great. Then the rest of the New York Times op-ed pundits could be fired and Krugman could write a column five days a week. Intellectual life in the US would be so so much better.
January 21, 2009 7:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks to all who commented and rec'd this silly post.
I enjoyed most all the comments, (s'pric being the notable and only exception) and surely don't deserve being at the top of the list. I will cherish the memory.
It's a new day in America, and I'm glad to be in the company of such upright and distinguished fellow commenters.
--the chicken
January 21, 2009 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, now I have to comment, so I can be upright and distinguished.
January 21, 2009 8:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are kinda jumpy! Missed you, my favorite of all toads!!
We're in da front room.
January 21, 2009 8:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Look at all the fun I missed. I had a pundit free couple of days and it was nice. I did, however, spot Anderson Cooper strolling down the street on his way to the mall yesterday. He's so cute.
Good job, bwak. I missed you guys.
January 22, 2009 12:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
updating dashboard. Maybe.
January 31, 2009 8:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Or not
February 8, 2009 1:42 PM | Reply | Permalink