The Established Pundit Class Is Worthless

Posted by Thers, Whiskey Fire at 4:44 AM on April 21, 2008.

Juan Williams is an asshole. You knew that already, but listen to this shit, where he explains that Obama is wrong to complain about the absurd and disgusting trashing of the national discourse into "gotcha" garbage.

What kills me about this line of defense, the one we get from Williams, and then from George, is how quick these media geniuses are to absolve themselves of any responsibility whatsoever for how the nation perceives politics. George:

Stephanopoulos explained that since the candidates are not far apart policy-wise, the "core of the nomination fight" has been about these issues. They’ve been fighting it out on this turf," he said, adding that these are things that “came up between this debate and the last one"

Wow. It's as if ABC has no power at all, at all to decide what it shows, how it shows it, or how it runs debates. ABC News apparently has no say in deciding what the "core" of a "nomination fight" might in fact be -- and has also no control over how this "fight" might be represented to their viewers. Shit happens. THEY didn't poop it.

That they say this nonsense is an outrage. That they seem to sincerely believe it is a reason to sample different brands of bleach to see what's tastiest.

The established pundit class is worse than useless. They have a vested interest in turning politics into a parlor game where vacuous horserace "analysis" substitutes for bothering to understand policy. They are not biased Left or Right, they are biased towards preserving their monopoly over the power to determine the content and form of "legitimate" political expression, the criteria for which they have reduced to the most hideously inane levels imaginable.

Tagged as: media, election, pundits

Thers runs Whiskey Fire.