Why do our pundits suck?

[GRLMGC]

One of you guys should be on t.v. being aggressive. Too bad.

[ReadTomPaine]

1. In many cases, the reason they are picked is due to their weakness...

... so the conservatives around whom the show is based can play 'Whack a Dem' at will. If you are looking for strong advocates for progressives, Mike Malloy and Randi Rhodes are a good start.

RTP

[jrthin]

2. And THAT is the point.

Anyone of us would put up a fight, but the corporate media whores don't want a fair fight. They want the rethug's point of view to be strong, and ours weak; therefore, they'll always select weak dem pundits. Rarely do you see a strong dem: that's by design and not an accident.

[Robeson]

12. Absolutely by design..

[ClassWarrior]

3. Because the Radical RW has a farm team system...

...the think tanks - and we have nothing like it to groom our people. The only thing like it we have is the Rockridge Institute.

NGU.

[The Sheik]

4. IT BRINGS THE MONEY IN BECAUSE NOBODY WANTS TO SEE SOME COMMIE LIBRUL...

... who raise your taxes and STEAL YOUR BIBLE!

Those pundits make a pretty hefty salary, and they receive benefit of the Bush tax cut.

[ethereal]

6. Oh now

Jon Stewart and Lawrence O'Donnell rock! Though Begala's face contorts like he swallowed a six-inch sour pickle.

[The Sheik]

10. You're right.

Those two, along with some others, are great. But I've always considered Jon Stewart more of a commedian, so I didn't think of him when I typed up this post.

[Cat Atomic]

5. Because they're moderates.

The range of debate in the mainstream media is center to far-right. So you have passionate extremists from the far-right, shouting at wimps from the center who are always trying to find that "common ground".

It's not that the left is wimpy. The left simply isn't allowed in.

[Clintmax]

7. "We" have no pundits

The so called "democratic" or "liberal" pundits are, almost to a person, straw men set up for a much stronger conservative to deconstruct. This is done deliberatly. My advice, as always, is to turn these hosebags off. Read a book; listen to AAR; take a walk in the country. But turn these cable "news" networks off. I would sooner trust Soviet-Era Pravda to provide accurate news.

[bemildred]

8. They are paid to suck. It's a job. That is all.

Turn it off and you won't have to listen

[Catt03]

9. Money (nt)

[Robeson]

11. Gore Vidal wrote a piece in his book American Essays which...

...gives a good example of whats going on:

"The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No first World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent....

...I seldom watch television. But when I do set out to twirl the dial, it is usually on Sunday, when our corporate rulers address us from their cathode pulpit. Seedy Washington journalists, sharp-eyed government officals who could not dispose of a brand-new car in Spokane, think-tank employees, etiolated from too long residence 'neath flat rocks...The level of the chat on those progammes is about as low as it is possible to get without actually serving the viewers gin. The opinion expressed ranges from conservative to reactionary to joyous neofascist....

...Last year, Peter Jennings proposed to ABC that, for old times' sake, it might be a good idea to have me on. "No," he was told. "he'll just be outrageous." "

So you see, they can have neofascist on, frothing at the mouth, and thats not outrageous because they serve their corporate masters. A Liberal, however, who speaks the truth, is just too outrageous.