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BEST: Anderson Cooper
CNN
He's not a pundit, he's not a gas bag — he's not even
yelling. That's why Cooper makes this list: his ability to referee
while rising above the verbal fistfights (and for talking sense
into Larry King every night). We wish he'd stop calling Donna
Brazile "Boo," but you can't have it all.
Photo: CNN
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BEST: Keith Olbermann
MSNBC
Sometimes we think it's going to end badly for the madly brilliant
Keith — him running down Sixth Avenue stripping off his suit,
pulling his hair and screaming the names of News Corp. execs and
great Yankee third basemen. But until then, TV doesn't have a
smarter, funnier voice.
Photo: NBC
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BEST: Roland Martin
CNN
Hey, who invited this guy? Aren't all cable pundits supposed to be
white, creaky ex-Nixon aides? A former editor at The Chicago
Defender, Martin has brought a new, sharp voice to CNN's
election coverage — that is, when he's allowed to get a word
in on those crowded panels.
Photo: Getty
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BEST: David Gergen
CNN
Sure, many nights he plays it safer than Nickelback, but the silky
former adviser to four presidents is still a trusted voice of
Washington insider politics. And let's not pretend we don't care
about Washington insider politics — we're watching CNN, for
crap's sake. Has nicely straddled the old and new CNN.
Photo: Getty
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BEST: Chris Matthews
MSNBC
Yes, he's as smooth as a garbage can falling down a flight of
stairs, but don't you just love the big blond grizzly bear when his
intellect, ambition and insecurities come pouring through the
screen? Gives politics the Super Bowl treatment, and we (usually)
love the energy.
Photo: NBC
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WORST: Lou Dobbs
CNN
Dubiously reborn as a populist warrior, CNN's ivory-toothed
business blowhard sits before a waving American-flag graphic,
lecturing his imprisoned guests every night on subjects like
immigration reform, international trade and his own genius. Bonus
egomaniac points: Reportedly mulled a 2008 presidential bid.
Photo: Getty
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WORST: Sean Hannity
FOX
Hannity's bully act is like O'Reilly without the showmanship or
Limbaugh without the hilarious hypocrisy. We'd rather watch an
aerial wolf hunt than his joyless pummelings of Alan Colmes, Fox's
Washington Generals. At least he allows gays on his conservative
dating service, Hannidate. (Seriously.)
Photo: Getty
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WORST: Steve Doocy
FOX
"THIS! IS! HUGE!" That's how a giddy Doocy reacted to a news
bulletin that Barack Obama was "raised as a Muslim." The author of
the marriage guide The Mr. & Mrs. Happy Handbook, he
presides over Fox's hypercaffeinated morning call to arms, Fox
& Friends.
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WORST: Glenn Beck
CNN
Again, why is this guy on cable TV? Oh, yeah, because Headline
News, after exhausting every possible opportunity to be a credible
news network, turned to the dark Fox-chasing side and recruited
their own lil' O'Reilly to make hay about global warming, etc.
Minor upside: not Nancy Grace.
Photo: Getty
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WORST: Chris Matthews
CNN
He made both lists! Because every time we want to give a hug to
this lug, he goes off on a wacky tangent about Obama being a
latter-day Lawrence of Arabia, or credits Hillary Clinton's
ascension to her husband's wandering eye. You want wacky? He may
run for the Senate in 2010!
Photo: NBC
[From Issue 1063 — October 16, 2008]
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