The Political Talk Show Moderators

9/16/2004

The Political Talk Show Moderators

Okay, Kaitlyn, more grandmother notes about the pundits who would shape and opinionate our world. Though they sit on their mighty perches at the head of the network and cable conference tables, they are no smarter than Grandmother sitting right here, writing this missive to sweet granddaughter whilst clad in pajamas. Okay, not pajamas but I did sleep in my attire last night so it should count.

Thus comes the time for Grandmother to immortalize the current crop of televised political pundits in this year of our Lord, Kaitlyn. Should some still be around during your time sweet granddaughter, well then you will know what Grandmother thinks of them.

For the hell of it, Grandmother will list them in the order of how good she thinks they are. Beginning with:

Brit Hume-host of Fox News at 6pm my time. Perhaps Grandmother so adores Brit because he is: handsome, articulate, fair and balanced. Grandmother would marry Brit Hume should he ask her. Hume has the ability to smile and pat the liberals at his round table who would spout silly talking points, accurately point out the fallacy of their lies, introduce the funny late show political jokes that we may smile along with him and oh, did Grandmother say he was handsome?

Second Best: Tim Russert. Russert is, and has been, host of the vaunted Meet the Press for many years. Plenty of conservative types do not like Russert, Kaitlyn, and perhaps rightfully so. He does carry that soiled badge of having worked so long for the lame stream media and the disbelief associated with that of late.

By Grandmother, Russert does about a fair a job as he can considering the restraints of his medium and the diversity of his audience. He does not broadcast across the more conservative Fox air waves thus must at least appear to be on everybody’s side. Were Russert a Fox commentator Grandmother would hate him. But as a single representative of the main stream media (NBC) Grandmother considers his longevity, likeability and almost fair presentation of the issues, and ranks Russert as a solid professional likely to still be hosting when Kaitlyn decides to tune in.

Next: John Gibson. Gibson is host of the Fox 5 o’clock news segment and if nothing else, Kaitlyn, one has to love the man’s hair. Beyond that, Gibson gets too little ballyhoo on that conservative network though he does a great job. He ends each show with a segment called “My Word” and most time Grandmother agrees with his word.

Grandmother would marry John Gibson should he ask her.

Next: Wolf Blitzer. Blitzer is host on the formerly vaunted CNN cable network, particularly his Sunday talk show titled “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer”. Grandmother always watches this show and she must grudgingly grant Mr. Blitzer a fairly interesting show with penetrating commentary.

Grandmother will always remember Blitzer when he was the on-site CNN representative during the first Gulf War. At that time, the early nineties, CNN was the only cable news network in town.

CNN is notorious for its liberal bent and alas, some of it carries over to Wolf. Grandmother thinks he really does try to be fair and balanced considering his home base. He usually has pretty good guest as well.

Grandmother would marry Wolf Blitzer should he ask her.

Next: Greta Van Sustern. Greta hosts the Fox show “The Greta Van Sustern show”.

Okay, Kaitlyn, allow Grandmother to say right now that many of the blogosphere consider Greta to be fluff and obsessed with the current true crime of national interest: the Scott Peterson case.
Which she is, Kaitlyn. But Grandmother has an unusual, perhaps unhealthy, interest in true crime. Thus the endless shows with Scott Peterson segments do not offend Grandmother.

I think Greta does possibly the best job of controlling her guests in terms of insuring one does not monopolize or one does not get heard at all. Every political talk show host could learn something from Greta. She always does a great job of interjecting pertinent questions and she has that uniquely feminine ability to shut up the motormouths without offending them.

Now on to the worst of the current political talk show hosts in this day of our Lord. We shall go from the best of the worst down to the very worst of the worst.

Sean Hannity: It pains Grandmother to put Hannity into this category, Kaitlyn Mae, but I cannot abide by Sean’s constant badgering of guests with a single talking point shouted over and over until my ears are shredded.

Hannity is, Kaitlyn, a fine young man and I do not doubt his sincerity, ever, not even for a moment. And I suppose Sean thinks his brutal badgering of guests reflects upon him as a no-nonsense sort of pundit. Uh-uh, Kaitlyn. Too often Grandmother has to flick the channel so bad does he grate on her nerves.

The best thing I can say about Sean Hannity, co-host of the Fox show “Hannity and Colmes”, is that Sean is waaaaay better than Colmes.

Bill O’Reilly. O’Reilly is the host of a self-named Fox Network show.

The reality of O’Reilly, Kaitlyn, is that he would not be half bad as host of a political punditry show in terms of format, control and presentation of guests.

Grandmother’s beef with O’Reilly is his opportunistic nature that reminds her of the lame stream media. For Bill will, given a chance to display his own grand imperiousness, wipe aside entire segments of the population with brisk dismissal. An example would be one evening when he declared the entire Blogosphere to be too noisy and not worth our time. Implicating, Katlyn, that only he, mighty Bill O’Reilly, is worth the attention.

Another thing that really annoys me about Bill O’Reilly is his constant fawning over his liberal guests. It’s almost as if O’Reilly wants the likes of Rosie O’Donnell, Michael Moore, yada, yada, to really, really like him. He will come on as this friendly sort of pundit, not at all like those other meanies on Fox who would put these folks through the wringer.

Grandmother considers O’Reilly as not to be trusted. He’s sell his soul in a minute to improve his own ratings. O’Reilly is a sprite with no conviction and I will always change the channel just as soon as his show is introduced.

Okay, these two are tied. George Stephanapolous and Paula Zahn. Stephie hosts a Sunday talk show on the lame stream media network. What’s most notable about Stephie is his former life as an avowed apologist for Clinton.

Stephie tries, I really think he tries, to be a fair and impartial host. Grandmother’s prejudice is so clouded by the man’s former shenanigans in shutting up Clinton’s “bimbo brigade” that he has forever lost my trust and holds no credibility for Grandmother.

Paula Zahn hosts a nightly show on CNN. All I can say about this twit is that she is pretty without a brain. Totally undeserving of her own show and not worth even the most casual tune in.

Finally….the WORST!

Chris Matthews. Chris Matthews hosts a pundit show on cable’s MSNBC called “Hardball”.

By Grandmother, Kaitlyn, Matthews is a former funky peacecorpnick and his silly liberal bias is so ostentatiously on display as to make him a joke.

What’s the pity, Matthews really could be a top rate pundit in that he was once part of the inside the beltway scene and the guy does really know his politics.

He makes too many bargains with the devil, such as selling his soul for liberal causes. Once, during this election season, Matthews had John Kerry on the show and it was such a love fest they should have re-named the show “Softball”. Chris also has some kind of inside deal with Ron Reagan, former President Reagan’s liberal son. The very gay son of the greatest president of our time has an inside line to the Kerry campaign which is why I think Chris held that softball interview with John Kerry.

Another thing that is so very annoying about Chris Matthews is his red hot intent to try and make major issues about things that HE cares about but the public ignores. Yes, Grandmother has some examples.

Stem Cell research-Ron Reagan’s pet cause. Chris held a few shows criticizing the First Lady Laura Bush over her comments that stem cell research might not be all the pundits want it to be. Chris spent two or three shows over Laura Bush’s remarks, loudly proclaiming that she would have hell to pay over her comments.

Kaitlyn, nothing ever came of it all but no thanks to Chris Matthews’ efforts in pushing his own agenda.

Matthews’ did everything in his power to discredit the Swift Boat Veterans and their counter-claims against John Kerry’s own brand of Vietnam fiction. He was brutal, stupid, and even banned the sweet Michelle Malkin from his show for no reason save his anger that these Viet Vets would ruin his good thing with the Kerry campaign.

Finally, and this is funny, while all the world is raging over CBS and the Blogosphere, who does Hardball have on the show in the middle of it all?

All the members of the 9/11 Commission!

That is so passé, Kaitlyn. No one cares any longer about those vicious partisans and their waste of taxpayer money re-inventing the wheel. For TWO DAYS Chris entertained these dopes, failing to even make a mention of the CBS brouhaha.

Then Matthews does love the 9/11 commission and the members due to his own agenda. Which would be the elevation of Chris Matthews to Tim Russert status via his enlightened expose of those things precious to the liberals.

He’s a loser with losing ratings.

No one could deserve it more, Kaitlyn Mae.

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