It must be so frustrating to be a real expert..

[SoCalDem]

Just think of the money spent in school, actually studying and researching & learning.. All those projects that scientists do over and over, to test their theories.. all those endless papers to write... all the books....all the years of low pay (based on the amount of educational expenses & time) ..and finally to emerge as a bonafide expert...only to see your words, your work being soundbyted to nothingness by a bubble-headed newsreader, who chuckles his/her way through the "highlights" of your years of work..and announces with a scowl, that "people don't really believe this will work"..

I guess if you pitch a big enough fit, you might be invited to defend yourself and your conclusions...if you can do it while being interrupted by a rightwing nutcase and the newsreader every 3 seconds...and if you can do it all in 30 seconds..

[ColbertWatcher]

1. The trick with appearing on cable TV is...

...to make sure you are not on satellite, but that you are in the same studio as the "host".

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Oh, and go live, no taped anything. n/t

[fasttense]

3. Gore Vidal was on the Young Turks the other day.

And I loved his closing remarks.

He said something like "Tell me the meaning of life in 30 seconds or less. This is also a form of media manipulation and control."

[KharmaTrain]

4. Self-Annointed Experts...

When I played with talk radio, I used to have a reference book on "experts" on various topics. Most of these were names placed out there by PR and booking agents who use talk shows to sell their goodies. I was amazed at how many of these so-called "experts" had little substance to them other than a fancy title...and many had some kind of corporate tie in. For example, if I had wanted to do a show on Global Warming, the "book" (and this was common among other talk show hosts) was loaded with Phds...almost all connected to a "think tank" that was subsidized by an oil company. If it was medical, be assured that you could find an expert who would gladly discuss the latest new "drug" or technique...and hidden behind the school or wherever they were based was the grant money of one pharamcutical company or another. Thus, be careful when the term "expert" is thrown around.

I agree, the corporate media loves to short-shrift most discussion on serious topics...trying to take complex issues and sum them up in 15-30 seconds...and the hope is that either the host or producer will throw them the softballs...everyone goes home happy. The sad thing is how unprepared some of these people are...both the interviewer and the interviewee. That's because many times the guy who does the hard work isn't the one who either gets the credit or gets the interviews...you're usually getting their boss.

Also, always be careful as to whose behind the "interviews"...our corporate media has many tenticles and aren't beyond using them on their broadcast outlets to promote the overall corporate interest. Just keep in mind that virtually everyone on the teevee is selling something.

[cap]

5. didn't use to be that way

20 years ago you had people who had expertise on different issues come on TV . The moderators had to shepherd them so that they wouldn't get lost in technical details that were incomprehensible to the average person. The moderators also had true experts on either side of an issue so that you would get some way to evaluate politicians. Now we have bubbleheads instead.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. How Many Real Experts On Economics Do We See?

I'm completely agreeing with what you're saying. Just amplifying around a single area of expertise.

People who have no published works. People with no original ideas. Just standard liberterian, Hayekian or Hazletian theories, that have already proven to not really work the way they think they do.

Economists may be the archetype of what you're talking about.
The Professor

[MJW]

7. Dumb it down

The amurican peeple dont unnastand big wurds

[slampoet]

8. As an Actual Expert in Audio manipulation, I'm pissed to see fools falling for the Bin Laden tapes

They are obvious forgeries and I always have people shouting me down on it.