Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom by Barry W. Lynn

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Powell's Books

I'm one of those people who shows up on television just often enough for people sitting next to me on airplanes to occasionally ask, "Don't I know you?" By this they usually mean "you're not a really famous person," but they also know you weren't their dentist 20 years ago, either. They suspect you are indeed one of those fleeting televised "talking heads."

I recently started to go through boxes of decaying videotapes that chronicle my occasional notoriety in order to "digitalize" the salvageable. After 35 years of appearances, from good to bad to ugly, here's my wish for the New Year: better television news.

I have a few modest proposals.

More guests with expertise

First, cable television needs to use fewer contracted commentators and more people with authentic expertise. Much as I like James Carville, I have decided that even he is not an expert on everything. (As for the ubiquitous group of persons labeled "Republican strategist" or "Democratic strategist," you can usually count on them to be experts on nothing.)

 Read the rest on AOL News.

Thanks as always to Gina Misiroglu of Red Room for putting me in touch with the AOL people. It's one of the great ways she's bringing traffic to Red Room and getting attention for Red Room's authors.