After a montage of year-plus-old clips of cable commentators declaring Hillary Clinton “inevitable” (and variations thereof), Jon Stewart last night proclaimed political poundits to be “like the Doppler-less weathermen of our time.”
Later on the show, Barbara Walters explained how seasoned journalists handle asking Uncomfortable Questions of Intimidating People:
You don’t say, “Are you crazy?” Because, you say, “You know, there are people who think you’re crazy.” It’s never you. It’s always, “You must know the rumor abou you? You have heard that there are people who think you might have killed somebody?”
The old “some say.”
Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.