Your talk (show) has become tiresome! (ap)
Former White House press secretary Dana Perino resurrected an old but still interesting chestnut on Fox & Friends this morning — about how all the partisan bickering and arguing on TV alienates women and independents. This has come up before — remember CNN’s Crossfire? That was a show dedicated to political bloviating.
Hand-wringing has waxed and waned for years over “the tone” and shouting and the corrosive, often alienating effect that uncivil discourse has on various constituency groups and democracy. It’s a valid concern — and it’s timely, since after a brief flowering of post-election detente (five minutes, tops) both parties are convulsively back at each other’s throats.
“Sunday shows are usually a little more boring than that, that was like a testosterone overload yesterday morning,” Perino said. “Part of it is you just can’t understand what they’re saying because they’re talking over each other, which I actually think is what turns off independents and women when they try to watch these shows and it makes them more frustrated with Washington.”
Dana (honk!) was reacting to a segment on Sunday’s “This Week” on ABC that pitted RNC Chairman Michael Steele against DNC Chairman Tim “Big Daddy” Kaine in a health care deathmatch that featured weird hand-grabing and everyone talking at once.
“I’m going to let Michael be the used car salesman,” Kaine said at one point. “I’m going to talk about health reform.”
