Comments on: Weekend Poll: America’s Worst Pundits

By: Weekend Poll Results: America’s Worst Pundit - E.D. Kain - American Tory - True/Slant

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:25:27 +0000

[...] the results are in, and the winners [...]

By: dtafs

dtafs — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:47:40 +0000

oops, i replied to the wrong comment. Meant for this to be under your response to my post just above.

By: dtafs

dtafs — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:14:50 +0000

It’s a great question, and one I have thought about many times.

TBH, I’m surprised that we haven’t seen it happen. And I would guess, someone, somewhere, has to have something in the works.

Journalism in our country has degraded to the point now where there is such a public distrust of anything presented on TV, that most people just don’t watch.

Hell, I’ll readily admit that I learn more from reading this blog, as well as a few others, than I could ever learn from watching a 24 hour news channel.

At least in the blogesphere, most (not all) opinions are backed up with supporting documents and facts. Although, that’s also now becoming laborious to sort through.

The bottom line is, I’m 35 yrs old and a reasonable person. If i wanted to have people lay out arguments to me with stick figure drawings and crazy colorful visual aides, I’d tune back into sesame street.

I want to do what I do in real life. Gather the facts and evidence, and come to my own conclusion and opinion on a subject. Not have someone hand me theirs, thinly veiled as “fact.”

Heck, half the time, I go here: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/
just to get a better feel of who in the media is being honest, and who isn’t.

It’s a pretty damning testament, on the whole, when you have to have a website that actually checks and rates the comments made by those in the media.

By: E.D. Kain

E.D. Kain — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:05:10 +0000

Rudy – again, I didn’t include all pundits, and I was mainly focusing on television. Bill Kristol would certainly fit nicely into the “worst” column in my book. He’s neocon in chief these days.

By: E.D. Kain

E.D. Kain — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:02:50 +0000

That’s a great idea Michael. I’ll do that, maybe for next weekend’s poll.

By: E.D. Kain

E.D. Kain — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:02:09 +0000

Sarah, I wonder if this is a result of the medium or the intended audience or what…? But I agree, though there are plenty of hacks in the world of the written word as well.

By: E.D. Kain

E.D. Kain — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:01:22 +0000

Then the question becomes – will the stations ever realize that there is a demand for this and actually back the idea with money? And then – is there something about the medium that dilutes or distorts the actual opinions and news being presented?

By: E.D. Kain

E.D. Kain — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:00:01 +0000

Well said. Which is exactly why I asked this exit question to begin with…

By: esaeger

esaeger — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:03:24 +0000

I voted for Hannity as the worst, only because neither of the Twin Twit Twats was available, they being Monica Crowley and Ann Coulter. Every time I hear Crowley start off one of her racist, fearmongering, corporate-bought, utterly retarded remarks with “Look…” I want to kill abandoned kittens.
Blondes with nice legs, duh, helping to keep Joe Retard Plumber 6-Pack wolfing down the dogshit Beck and Hannity ladle out. I seriously don’t know how any of these assholes — Hannity, Coulter, Malkin, the whole crew – sleep at night. I sincerely hope the payola is worth all the dead soldiers and financially ruined proles.

By: dtafs

dtafs — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:39:30 +0000

I hear ya. But I do think people want the truth. I also believe that many Americans want the news, the pundits, etc. to start talking to us as if we are adults, not 14yr old impressionable kids.

My biggest beef with politics today is that every time i turn on the TV to catch some news, I feel like i enter the twilight zone. I see members of congress using 4th grade-esque visual aids to make non sensical arguments about anything they feel like arguing about.

TBH, It’s f-ing annoying that these people who are no more experts than you and I in any given subject treat us like we can’t comprehend the complexities of a situation.

And it’s one of the reasons why I just tune most of it out these days.