Sunday, October 26, 2008

Pundits For Sale

From the New York Times, Sunday, October 26, 2008:

"J. PETER FREIRE is at school, learning to be a better pundit.

"He is being trained to carve his conservative philosophy into bite-size nuggets — preferably ones that end with a zinger — and to avoid questions he doesn’t like. He is discovering the right way to attack opponents (with a smile) and to steer a conversation in his direction (by interrupting).
"Journalists once had to achieve a certain gravitas before appearing on television as a political expert, but not anymore. Thanks to the 24-hour news cycle, a riveting presidential election and the proliferation of cable channels, people like Mr. Freire, who is 26 and has been managing editor of The American Spectator, a conservative magazine, since January, are finding themselves in hot demand."

If you ever needed convincing not to believe anything you hear on TV news this should be the capper. What base of knowledge does any 20-something bring to his pundtry? His ability to smile while smearing? His ability to avoid answering direct questions by "steering" to his pre-paid political message?

I used to "train" business and professional persons to become more effective communicators either in person or through the news media. But one thing I always told them was NEVER LIE.

What does pundit school teach these media tots? Smile, steer, sell your message for all you're worth. Credibility? Forget it. This is the world of never-ending news regurgitated on the all-views-all-the-time cable shows.

The tragedy is that too many viewers take this stuff seriously and then repeat it to their friends and relatives; or worse yet, pollute the internet by forwarding this stuff to their entire email address books.

Please exercise a little more discretion before hitting that forward button and THINK before you put any credence into what a wet-behind-the-ears blowhard has to say on the air.

Thanks and good luck.