The Low Spark And Expectations Of The ‘Elite’ Political Media

Kent Anderson
5 min readSep 21, 2023

LEWIS BLACK: “I really do think part of the problem is that the cynicism is caused by the fact that more in the course of my lifetime and having lived in Washington, that Washington’s increasingly been a bubble much the same that a lot of people who live in Hollywood are in a bubble.

“And when I started going on the road 25 years ago and I was going, “Well, you’re too angry. They’re not going to get it.” What I was discovering was they were angrier than I was. And there’s a sense of disenfranchisement now that I think is seen in the number of people who went and voted that I had just never experienced in my lifetime. And I’ve watched you and everybody else when somebody comes on. And I don’t know how you do it. I don’t know how you do it. I’d be barking at them. You sit there and go, “Blah blah blah blah blah.” I sit there — ”

CHUCK TODD: “We all sit there because we all know the first time we bark, the last time we do the show.”

“Meet the Press,” December 28, 2014.

Sunday, Kristen Welker took over as moderator of MtP, replacing Todd. Her first guest? The twice impeached, four-times indicted, libidinous former president*, Donald John Trump.

A man who lied so much during his time in office, The Washington Post tracked 30,573 of them. So, for those who already knew this, there were no expectations except the 78-minute train wreck that followed.

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Kent Anderson

Purveyor of Truth and Facts. Lifelong Detroiter. Journalist. Loves good TV, sports, friends and family. Mostly. Also: https://rollingwheelie.substack.com/