Isn't everyone a "pundit"?

Some guy named Frank Rich, a style writer or was it comics, no perhaps theater critic, for the NY Times has declared the Iraq war lost. Well, then that’s that. If the well known food critic of the Times declares the war lost, like Johnny Apple declared the Afghanistan war a “quagmire” two weeks in, what’s the point of continuing?

I have always wondered what qualifies one to be a pundit about something he knows nothing about. How did Frank Rich go from Theater Critic to foreign policy guru? Why is what Frank says taken anymore seriously than what Lex says? Lex graduated in the middle of the pack in high school and at THE Ohio State University, so it can’t be education.

Something has happened to news. Every outlet seems more interested in telling you what what happened means to you than what happened. Yeah, I know a lot whats. Read it again. It makes perfect sense. I’ve read it three times and it gets clearer every time. It’s also a perfect reason why Frank Rich is a pundit. Frank probably has never been so daring as to use the word “what” three times in a single sentence – two times back to back.

But news has become largely unwatchable because everyone has an opinion on the stories of the day and they use their air time to share that point of view rather than tell what happened. Even if a reporter just tells the story, the anchor will egg him on by asking probing questions like, Johnny Blowdried, how does your report reflect the incompetence of the Bush administration?

Then there is the “round table”. Like the Meet the Press round table. Instead of getting someone on the air that might actually know something about the subjects of the day, Russert brings in 3-4 like minded lefties to sit around a table (hence the name round table) reassuring each other that Bush is indeed Hitler and the only way out of the mess we’re in is to legalize gay marriage.

I care a lot less about what Russert and his like-minded lefties think about the ISG report than say Gen Abizaid or even Lance Corporal Smith who has actually been to Iraq. I have a higher regard for what Lex jr. says about Iraq than I do about what the former obituary writer for the NY Times has to say about it. And I am after all a pundit. So I know what I’m talking about.