Why are national pundits who get things horribly wrong still around?
Posted by: Neocon in Democrats, Media Bias, Republicans, tags: actress, facet, fame, judgment, mcardle, mistake, movie stars, paul krugman, perception, pundit, pundits, stinker, two answersMegan McArdle responds to Paul Krugman’s pondering over why pundits who get it wrong are still asked for comment. The two answers seem to be that (1) everyone makes mistakes and (2) often the mistakes made by pundits are also mistakes made by the majority of the public. It isn’t likely that the public would significantly fault a pundit for making the same mistake of judgment that they have. Why point blame anywhere in the first place and have some of it eventually ricochet back at you?
I think the answer is slightly different but no more complicated. The news is as much about packaging and perception as it is content. People gravitate toward others with similar beliefs. If you’ve been comfortably receiving reassuring partisan analysis from a pundit for years, you aren’t likely to drop them over even a major boo-boo. It’s no different in any other facet of our lives when it comes to public figures and fame. While pundits aren’t movie stars, despite what some would say, you don’t shut off every new movie that an actor or actress appears in simply because they were once in a stinker. If that were the case, the entire cast of Pearl Harbor would have dropped off the face of the Earth.
