NP: Frank Zappa, The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life

Keith Olbermann is bringing back his "Worst Persons In The World" segment after asking viewers to vote on its fate. At this point, I'm not at all surprised that 73% of his audience voted in favor -- it's gotten to where Olbermann is only interested in the true believers already on his side of the debate, and they love their derogatory nicknames for their political adversaries.

Which happens to be the best indicator of my disinterest in a pundit. If you've got to call people names, you're either pandering to your audience's blood lust, or you don't have an argument. With Olbermann, I find it to be the former. Yes, some of these people say some incredibly bone-headed things, but the insults are just gratuitous -- not to mention the baby thrown out with the bathwater of Keith's arrogant dismissals of any and all recent criticism. They're also a big reason I have trouble watching Countdown these days.

I think we need some sort of ongoing metric of the insularity of certain MSNBC and Fox News programs. That 73% is a good benchmark to start with.