Direct from a talking head...

First where did the term talking head come from???

Anyways, people often discuss how nonconstructive and negative political talk shows are. Two or three people yelling at or past each other is bad if its about politics or anything else for that matter. Part of the issue is the time constraints to actually contextualize the issue at hand--politics is often a complex mixture of congressional bills filled to the brim with legal e's and very important minutia that truly do need to be explained. As Dean Baker often points out over at Beat the Press in regards to budget reporting--if you don't give the context of the numbers, very few people, aside from a handful of budget wonks in the beltway are going to know what the numbers mean. Well the same can be said for complex political discussion as a whole.

Well Ezra Klien was discussing his recent appearance on hardball and said this

Neither of us were briefed on the day's topics before the show. This is, it should be said, a rarity in my experience, as Hardball has always told me the issues lineup in the past. But for whatever reason, we were sent in blind. And, sadly, it showed. I just don't know much about the US attorneys scandal and the wrongdoings of Alberto Gonzales. I can only track so many topics in a day, and the time spent reading health policy is time not spent reading Senate testimony. I'm aware enough that I can speak to Gonzales's actions as unethical, but without preparation or any preexisting familiarity with the penal code, I can't speak to the specifics of their legality -- and I don't want to get anything wrong on air, where I can't correct it.

Maybe it was a fluke, maybe a decision to help make a spectacle of a segment. I don't know. All I know is that I wasted 20 minutes of my evening watching hardball, to see a segment that was not very insightful or informative. I kept thinking, this is how most people get their news? And it turns out in this case you can't blame the guests. I know for a fact the Ezra is very articulate and is very well versed in his field. We like him over here at 3rd District (putting to the side the partisan discussions and political horse race commentary) because of his support of Universal health care and the fact that he gives citizens who want to make ideas more important than attack ads--lots of ideas to chew on.

So for once I can verify its not the talking heads fault!!