Fox calls the program Outnumbered. The name ostensibly derives from the talk show’s format. Four “foxes” literally surround the dapper male anchor, to debate whatever subject some program director thinks will engage 8th grade mentality, meaning the majority of TV viewers. Male viewers, bored with topical conversation, can always focus on four pairs of fashionably crossed legs, stylish hems enticingly parked at mid-thigh, a prerequisite of all Fox “foxes.” But don’t be misled. These legs have credentials. Former track star Sandra Smith actually took some business classes and minored in speech at LSU before diving into the Wall Street world where her father and many of her other family fiddled with financials. Jedediah Bila, valedictorian at Wagner, studied Spanish and business, earned her Masters at Columbia and taught high school and college students in NY. Kimberly Guilfoyle graduated magna cum laude from Cal Davis, and earned her JD from USF. She interned at the DA’s office in SF and quite understandably modeled Victoria Secret lingerie for local department stores. Harris Faulkner studied business economics and mass communications at the University of California Santa Barbara and worked as a junior accountant before becoming a freelance writer. Rotating panelist Katie Pavlich, primarily known for her journalist work at Townhall.com, authored Fast and Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal And Its Shameless Cover-Up. Not bad for a 26-year-old outdoor adventuress. And then there’s Tucker Carlson, elder son of Richard Warner Carlson, a former LA news anchor and U.S. Ambassador to the Seychelles; and adoptive mother Patricia Caroline Swanson, heiress to the Swanson food-conglomerate fortune, not to mention great-uncle Sen. J. William Fulbright. Naturally, a son of privilege, he would attend St. George’s School and major in History at Trinity. It all adds up. Education, looks, accomplishment, poise, verbal acuity. Very much the attributes of one Barack Obama, minus the accomplishment, of course. But you digress. Something’s missing. It’s the something that’s missing on most of the popular “talk shows.” With rare exception, young TV desk jockeys never served a day in the military, never owned a business, never met a payroll, never worked in law enforcement, never managed a corporate department, never labored in an industrial factory and never held a hospital bed pan. Yet these experts blithely make authoritative pronouncements on everything from blood and guts military to nuclear weapons to farm subsidies. In sports programming, you surely will see a blond with a short skirt, but at least she’s a moderator for male talking heads who are former athletes — professionals who actually played the game. Thankfully, credibility carries some weight in sport. But you have to give the Fox Network credit for finding beautiful people with sleek legs to deliver news and opinions. Like many of television’s talking heads, Megyn Marie Kelly, she of the ultra demonstrative, staccato delivery, is an attorney who parlayed smarts and glamor to displace the whiny Hannity. Another network (name begins with an “A”) has an even dimmer view of America’s shallow audience, opting to host celebrity talking heads in something called The View. Reminiscent of politics, this network has decided that viewers, like voters, will choose unqualified “celebrities” over persons of accomplishment. At the end of the day, as they say, the “expert” blabbers are no different than you and your expert blabber friends, sitting around the fire and offering opinions about the issues of the day, as if you and they had proprietary information. It’s so much talk, so much chatter, really. But some broadcast experts believe it’s entertainment. Compared to Rap, they do have a point.
