The make-believe "strategists" on cable TV: They really don't know what they are talking about

[DeepModem Mom]

Politico: Meet the make-believe strategists of TV
By: Daniel Libit
June 25, 2008

....Among the things that the proliferation of TV cable news has wrought is slackened standards for what constitutes a political strategist. Now used as a catchall tag for a whole host of people with varied — and often peripheral — backgrounds in electoral politics, the term has all but lost its meaning. “I think it’s absurd,” says Ed Rollins, a bona fide strategist who has held high-ranking positions in numerous Republican presidential campaigns. “Everyone calls themselves a strategist. I have been doing this for 40 years, I know most of the players, and I go on these shows and think, ‘Who are these people?’”...

***

“Many of these sort of more junior folks who have sort of made it into the ranks of analyst/commentator/strategist,” says one high-ranking cable news executive, “are only too happy to talk about things they don’t know about. Part of the problem is that because, again, they’re very glib, they’re good on TV. And if you ask someone the question and they give you a good-sounding answer, you might not know by asking them that it’s not their area of expertise.”

Others concur that the fractured nature of cable news time, particularly midday, allows almost anyone who’s articulate and politically inclined to act like a campaign insider. Rollins, who often appears on CNN himself, blames the cable news networks for “dumbing down” good analysis in the name of multitudinous voices. “I think the networks are idiotic in that they have capable people who have been around, but they want 12 panels,” he says. Independent TV analyst Andrew Tyndall thinks the “mislabeling” is also the product of the media’s unyielding “bid to seem as though they are inside the horse race.”

For those who are actually in the strategy business, the armchair quarterbacking can be maddening at times. “What’s frustrating for people who worked on campaigns is seeing these folks second-guessing decisions every day,” says one Republican strategist who has been a veteran of several presidential campaigns. “It has to be like an astronaut who spent their whole career and life trying to get to space, and you’ve got somebody who has never been there giving you an opinion of what it’s like on the moon.”

Close observers and participants in the cable news cycle say that, while this trend has been afoot for years, it seems to have reached a new apex this election cycle, fueled perhaps by the interest in attracting a more diverse crew of expositors....

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=BC9D1553-3048-5C12-00F5BE5F28096DD0

[fasttense]

1. Seems the Peter Principal has affected everything in the US.

The Peter Principle is the principle that "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence."

From the president, to congress, to justices on the supreme court, to corporation and their monopolies, to journalists hired by corporations, they all are seriously incompetent at their jobs.

[Eurobabe]

2. I can think of one young Repuke twit, who can't be

a day over 22, posing as a Republican "STRATEGERIST" - long brown hair, pretty face. She has no f'ing clue what she is talking about. Often seen wasting airtime on MSNBC with Contessa Brewer (I'd like to call her something else but it's not PC)

[blogslut]

3. It's like Jon Stewart said on his show last night

To paraphrase "If you predict things and you're right, you get fired from your pundit job."

[JaneQPublic]

4. They all remind me of a bunch of teenagers with their first cell phones

They have this cool gizmo to talk over (cable TV, in the case of the "strategists"), and the fact that they have absolutely nothing to say doesn't stop their incessant prattle.

[Johonny]

5. Republican strategist has no clue

“It has to be like an astronaut who spent their whole career and life trying to get to space, and you’ve got somebody who has never been there giving you an opinion of what it’s like on the moon.”

Huh? It's nothing like that. A lot of people are involved in space exploration and no doubt there are a lot of experts on the subject. You don't need to be a politician to understand and talk politics, just like you don't need to be an astronaut to talk about space. All you need is proper knowledge of the subject. To me it's more like a creationist trying to talk to you about evolution. Everything is filtered through their already preconceived notions of non-reality, and thus no fact will not be see as reaffirming their ideal of the world. Take Hannity for instance; if Bush ate a baby, Hannity would be on the air explaining why that was the bestest, brightest, most democraticest baby eating on the phase of the Earth.

[redqueen]

6. YOU DON'T SAY!

:wow:





:sarcasm:




Honestly... this is news?

[WCGreen]

7. It's like watching a fan only cable sports talk show.

Someone has to be there to call Bull Shit.