The cable networks have new competition in their campaign for your election-coverage vote. When asked in August why the president favored People and Entertainment Tonight over the political press, Obama campaign adviser Stephanie Cutter told CNN that pop-culture media is now "equally important." So the networks have turned to a fresh crop of talking heads who operate as one-person polemical brands, as adept at stirring up controversy as they are at analyzing the candidates. Here are the major political pop stars to watch right now.
Among the various fresh young things (including familiar-to-Reason folks such as Alyona Minkovski, S.E. Cupp, Michelle Fields, Will Cain, and James Poulos) is one semi-mummified time traveler who actually remembers 20th-century America, when dinosaurs bestrode the Earth and the Yankees could still win playoff games:
Nick Gillespie
Age: 49 Editor-in-chief, Reason TV Trending Now Because: The former Teen Machine magazine writer turned libertarian journalist and frequent cable-talk-show guest is famous for blasting liberals like Rachel Maddow for dismissing Obama's "Fast and Furious" gun scandal as a "conspiracy theory" and rankling conservatives with his pro-gay-rights position. Prime-Time Moment: When Gillespie took Maddow to task for F&F on Real Time With Bill Maher, the MSNBC anchor blurted, "Listen, dude, I'm not even a Democrat!" Gillespie responded, "You will always take the side of a Democrat over a Republican."
