Rank the cable news pundits.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I sure do enjoy political punditry. I know I’m not the only one here who enjoys the art of the talking head, so tell me who your favorites and least favorites are!

MSNBC takes the cake for me in terms of political opinion. It took a while, but they finally have a lineup that works really well. The morning starts with Joe Scarborough, a principled and entertaining conservative with an great daily panel. They cover the stories of the day very well with a wide variety of guests, many of very high stature.

Rachel Maddow is the breakout star of this past year, and deservedly so. She’s also great at unearthing many things that are not normally covered in the news cycle. As a bonus she is very net and media savvy, often offering great nuggets she finds on the internet and such.

Chris Mathews is my favorite for the inside strategy of politics as a massive game. He’s the most entertaining interviewer in my view. Ed Shultz is doing very nicely as the fiery populist type, it’s good to have a very strong “for the common man” liberal, since that is an attitude often associated with more conservative views.

Keith Olberman is just getting more annoying to me as time goes on, his is the show I’m always OK with skipping. He does have moments of brilliance sprinkled here and there, but his show just doesn’t stimulate my intellect like the others. I don’t like his constant comedic tone that is only broken up by moments of intense dramatic seriousness, and I don’t like that he doesn’t have anyone on his show that disagrees with him. Also, it seems so out of place that he still bashes Bush every chance he gets, including signing off with the “X days since the former president declared mission accomplished in Iraq”, STILL.

As far as Fox News, the only one I really dig is Mike Huckabee. I enjoy Huckabee’s consistent positive attitude and his entire approach/gimmick of respectful tone of debate. His entire demeanor makes me actually listen to and consider the points he makes more so that with other conservative pundits.

Bill O’Reiley is entertaining to me. I don’t find him nearly as dreadful as most liberals seem to. He is certainly conservative, and definitely has moments of douchbaggery , but he doesn’t view himself as a partisan mouthpiece for the Republican party. He even gives Obama credit for little things here and there, as opposed to…

Sean Hannity, who will say anything he can to twist anything to be democrats bad and republicans good. This guy has no dignity or respectability of any kind. He’s almost like a conservative Olbermann, only way worse. Just Terible. Fun show though:)

And finally Glenn Beck. I just don’t get this. Beck is the actual craziest person to ever have a cable news show, and that includes Alan Keyes! There is nothing on this show for someone who likes politics, only material for people who are inclined to seek out conspiracy theories. I don’t think he’s a lying conniving hack like Hannity, Beck actually convinces himself of the things he says. His genuineness and histrionics put him in an entirely different category from all the others.

CNN aims to be less opinionated, so the only real pundit they have is Loud Dobbs, who mostly maintains a steady level of boring and repetitive.

Let’s talk pundits!

2

Scarorough is alright.

Rachel is tops: best political acumen, most professional demeanor, most like a real journalist.

Chris Matthews is ok. Keith Olberman is way out in left field too often, and goes for entertainment before insight way too often.

Bill O’Reilly … sigh … he might be good if he didn’t slip into his angry, jingoistic, ranting, I-alone-know what’s-right-for-the-country nonsense so very often. I appreciate his generally independent thinking nonetheless.

Sean Hannity is a talking suit. “No dignity or respectability of any kind.” Indeed. Worse than Olbermann, which is saying something.

Glenn Beck is a raging lunatic.

Lou Dobbs is boring, I agree.

Rachel Maddow and O’Reilly are the only two I really care to pay attention to at all, and O’Reilly just barely.

3

Rachel is awesome. She’s the only pundit I’ll make an effort to watch. I especially like the fact that she’ll ask her guests, after she does her story intro, if her characterization was accurate. And, as shown in her recent segment with Tom Ridge, she’ll not shy away from direct criticism – while remaining respectful.

Although I don’t watch the Sunday pundit shows anymore, I also generally like Chris Wallace. Although he does lob a whole bunch of softballs.

And if PBS can be counted as “cable news”, Gwen Ifill is really informative and excellent.

4

And the winner is:

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Bill+O'Reilly&word2=Keith+Olbermann

5

I have more respect for Bill O’Reilly than Keith Olbermann because although he is coming from a conservative perspective he at least entertains opposing viewpoints.
Whereas Olbermann is just a smug sonofabitch with his nose up Obama’s ass.
Rachel Maddow isn’t nearly as bad as the guy she replaced. I forgot his name but he was an Olbermann wannabe.
Hannity would bitch if Obama appointed him ambassador to Tahiti.
As for Glenn Beck. WTF? Remember that kid in high school who would constantly act out because he had no social skills? Well, that’s Glenn Beck.
Alan Combs is weak. **Ann Coulter **is a right wing version of Olbermann.**Geraldo Rivera **is level headed. And I have the hots for Michelle Malkin so I don’t care what her politics are.

6

Cable News is for people who want to think they can solve all our national problems. The issues are simplified so much that any grade school student would walk away thinking he knows all the answers.

That said, I think Morning Joe is about the best you can do with the cable news format.

I’ve also made my peace with Bill O’Reilly. Unlike Hannity, I think he does form his own opinions.

Glenn Beck, I want to kick in the nuts.

Olbermann is a good mouth piece for the left. He’s better than no one.

I don’t watch cable enough to comment on anyone else.

7

WTF kind of comment is that? Nobody I know who watches cable news thinks they can “solve all our national problems”. We understand that we aren’t getting a detailed and ultimate view of every issue (cause that would make for extremely boring TV), that’s what we use books and further research for, if we care to learn more about something specific. We also understand that punditry is bias, that’s the point.

I knew someone who was way too cool and independent minded for cable news would come along soon, because you can’t throw a stone without hitting one. But that was an especially stupid characterization of people who enjoy televised political debate.

8

If by “political debate” you mean people arguing about issues totally irrelevant to actual political problems, then I guess I’m no one to judge what you like to watch.

I was just pointing out that the format of cable news doesn’t allow anything decent to come from its pundits. So you’d have to take them for what they’re worth.

9

To paraphrase Keith Olbermann, “Rachel (Maddow) is the affable policy wonk, Chris (Matthews) is the “inside baseball” of politics guy, and I (Keith Olbermann) am the a-hole.” That seems accurate. I can’t watch the asshole much anymore. It was fine when he was the only one of a major TV news outlet that spoke out on Bush, but when others started it, it became obvious how poorly he did it. I really like Rachel’s show. I don’t watch Ed Schultz or Chris Matthews much. I don’t watch TV before work, so I miss Morning Joe.

For Fox, I think O’Reilly and Huckabee are OK. Hannity is a total douche. Glenn Beck is entertaining if you don’t take him seriously. I am not sure if it was Obama’s election or his moving to Fox that drove him off the deep end, but he wasn’t this bad on CNN.

I can’t stand Lou Dobbs. Nancy Grace is one of worst personalities on TV. I haven’t watched Jane Velez-Mitchell. I like Jack Cafferty’s segments on “The Situation Room.”

10

Anyone but Glenn Beck or Nancy Grace. They put the “ew” in “news”.

11

True, O’Reilly isn’t quite as beholden to the talking points as the other Fox News personalities. But the guy’s such a self-righteous blohard, I can’t stand to watch him for more than five minutes.

12

I can’t stomach watching anyone on Faux. CNN just doesn’t interest me either, it seems they’ve gone down the tubes in recent years. That leaves me with MSNBC.

1- Rachel. She’s brilliant and works hard at her craft. A very thorough and fair interviewer, always respectful even if she knows that other person is Satan’s spawn. Bonus- she’s cute as a button.

2- Keith. He does take on Obama from time to time, despite what you think. Very critical of Obama’s unilateral concessions to the Party of Evil. I like his guests and Oddball is a hoot.

3- Chris. A bit of a blowhard and at times he misses the hanging curve. He has less control over his show than the others and guests frequently talk over each other. Far too often, he lets the Reich wingers get their zingers in unchallenged.

4- Ed. I like him. I really do. Just that he has that 6pm slot opposite the local and national news. I should DVR it but I only have so many hours in a day.

13

O’Lielly makes my skin crawl. Glen Beck is fun, just 'cause he’s so clueless and foaming-at-the-mouth ridiculous. Olberman can come across that way too, sometimes, when he forgets he’s supposed to be dishing sarcasm.

I watch MSNBC for my Rachel fix. She’s the best. Dr. Madow has some mad credentials and, while always polite, doesn’t suffer fools.

Joe Scarborough is OK, has some great “gets” for guests. Plus I like the Willie Geist, Mike Barnacle and Mika Brzezinski sidekick trio.

14

The most aggravating thing about Glenn Beck is that I know people who think he’s the guy with the handle on the truth. When he says Obama is dismantling the constitution and he’s going to bring an end to our free nation, they believe him completely.:rolleyes:

15

I just wish Chris would keep his mouth shut long enough for the guest to finish a sentence.

16

I think Rachel’s pretty good. The rest are between zero and very large negative numbers.