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Head TraumaInsiders reveal television's most hated pundits
(Photo: Getty Images) How things have changed. Today, the word pundit pretty much refers to any one of the preening jackals who host (or appear as a regular guest on) the dozens of shouty cable TV programs from which we ostensibly get our "news." "The cable punditry business is an echo chamber in which experience, talent, and knowledge are all secondary to how loud you can yell," says Chez Pazienza, a former producer at CNN's American Morning. "And the louder and more obnoxious you are, the longer your half-life in the chamber is." In an industry that places a premium on big personalities, then, it's no surprise that many of the men (and women, but mostly men) at the top of the heap rub their colleagues the wrong way. "Most people in cable news are assholes," says Tucker Carlson, the former host of CNN's Crossfire. "If they're not assholes, they have dysfunctional sex lives. But they're usually assholes." Of course, some cantankerous behavior is to be expected—it's a deadline-driven, high-stress field in which subordinates and talent alike routinely plow through 16-hour days purely on a temporary adrenaline-and-caffeine high. "The medium itself is so bad. It just brings out the worst in people," says Carlson. "People are constantly on edge. There's a real rawness of emotion present in even the most basic of human interactions." While the foundation-caked network faces typically smile away when the cameras are rolling, the lead-up more often closely resembles a hostage negotiation gone awry than a professional working environment. "Everyone is exhausted and has ADD. People yell and tempers fly. It can create an unfair representation of someone's true persona," says Pazienza. "That being said, there are a lot of genuine jerks." Which raises the obvious question: Who are the most hated news personalities of all? Not hated for their ideological viewpoints, mind you—we're talking about the people who are plainly and wholly disliked by their colleagues and overworked staffs. (Note: so many people suggested barely-relevant conservative stick figure Ann Coulter that we figured we'd mention her here and just move on.) To separate the mildly unpopular from the legitimately detested, we polled a number of current and former producers—the people with the best view of the tantrums and shouting matches—as well as some professional TV reporters and had them dish the dirt. In the interest of being fair and balanced, we also asked for the pundits who are popular and well-liked in their newsrooms. 
No major surprises here, except for Sean Hannity who I'm still convinced is a dick in real life as well. Posted by: sailor on July 21, 2008 12:19 PM Glad to hear Rachel Maddow is really nice, but what' with "Even a female producer at CNN, . . . is impressed." What's with the "even a female producer"? what's the source of surprise that a female producer would be impressed? huh? Posted by: suep on July 22, 2008 3:51 PM Laura Ingraham's program was only scheduled to last 5 weeks. So it's not gone because of failure; it was a trial run between Election HQ on Fox. Get your FDS in check, asswipes. Posted by: MsUnderestimated on July 22, 2008 11:23 PM Neel - Come on! David Gregory a nice guy? Did you miss the "David Gregory is a giant douche and asshole" series that Jossip ran a couple months ago? Lots of good stuff about him yelling at waiters, orchestrating hit jobs on other anchors, hamstringing colleagues... Posted by: Holden on July 23, 2008 12:52 PM Advertisement You might want to ask the 77 y/o pedestrian that Robert Novak ran down today in his black Corvette whether he thinks of him as a "nice guy". Posted by: HalJordan on July 23, 2008 11:40 PM call me "big guy", everyone, i demand it!....and hal i heard that guy was just 66, so it's ok...novak would never hit a 70 year old...hell, why didn't he just run over himself?....Call Me Big Guy!!!! Posted by: younger23 on July 24, 2008 1:28 AM Hey Big Guy! You're right...66 y/o... 10 years younger than Bob is, so the snot-nosed punk was probably asking for it. Posted by: HalJordan on July 24, 2008 11:00 AM Why do I get the feeling that the entire point of this blog post was to bash Keith Olberman? You are going to tell me that Keith is more hated than Ann or BillO? Give me a break. Of course you need to put him in the center and mention him first. I've never til this day seen keith yelling and shouting at anybody like BillO has and I've never seen him yelling the absurd obscenities that regurgitate from Ann Coulter's mouth. And what about that pill popping radio host pig Rush Limbaugh. Face it, conservative pundits are the most obnoxious and ridiculous clowns on TV and radio, it is just a fact. Liberal anchors have a lot more class than they do. Conservative pigs need to shout, scream and yell obscenities in order to get noticed or else nobody will listen to them. Faux News and The NY post are similar to the enquirer and star magazine. The pundits in those media outlets are similar to Britney and Paris Hilton, nobody can stand them, yet people still want to watch. Posted by: chr1s on July 25, 2008 4:20 PM Do It Live!!! Posted by: younger23 on July 25, 2008 10:12 PM I can't help but to agree with Chris. There is no way that people find Olberman any where near as offensive as blow hard Limbaugh or Coulter. I am most offended by the ongoing hypocrysy of the so called "conservatives". Posted by: Shellythe1 on July 26, 2008 2:23 PM they do it live though, can't fault them for not-editing their sex tapes....saw one with ingraham and an audiologist who kept wanting to finish her in non-classic porn star fashion, but miss laura would have none of it Posted by: younger23 on July 27, 2008 2:50 AM Keith was hated by everyone at ESPN during his tenure there. His asshole behavior cost him a full-time gig at CNN prior to landing (again) at MSNBC. And when he thought he was in danger of losing THAT job he decided the perfect way to save himself was to turn himself into the liberal version of Bill O'Reilly. It worked. Now if anything bad is printed about him, like this TRUTH presented here, then his defenders say, "it's because Keith is a liberal". No it's not. Once an asshole, always an asshole. But I gotta give him props for figuring out a way to save his job and deflect the truth about just what a douche is truly is. Posted by: MoeMoney on July 28, 2008 9:11 PM Yes, Keith is hated amongst the TV insider crowd. If he isn't quite as despised by the public at large, it's only because no one outside of Daily Kos readers even know who he is. Posted by: Holden on July 29, 2008 2:58 PM This actually showed a human side to Laura Ingraham. I think that she behaved rather well. There were no rants.Remember, when a person is on the the air and the staff has screwed up, the public only sees the failures of the on-air person and never knows what caused them. I am politically the opposite of Laura Ingraham, but, in this case, she is neither a fool nor a villain. Posted by: tram44 on August 3, 2008 7:51 AM Post a commentYour comment will not be visible for about a minute. If you don't see your comment when the page reloads, do not post it again. Reload the page in a minute, and you'll see it. < BACK TO Features |
    
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