Paul Waldman writes in The American Prospect:
[Tim] Russert and [Chris] Matthews may be at the top of their profession’s hierarchy, but their proletarian pose has become the standard affectation of the media elite…
And:
The contempt for the eggheads and latte-sippers may be offered with an angry sneer from the likes of [Bill] O’Reilly and the pretense of objective analysis from the likes of Matthews and Russert, but the motivation is one and the same, the millionaire media giant’s hope that his own authenticity hasn’t disappeared with his high station, that under it all he’s still one of the guys.
Or gals.
And the easiest way to show you’re still cool with the folks back in the neighborhood is to blather on about how Democrats (and it’s always only Democrats) aren’t.
Which arguably sums up Maureen Dowd’s “Eggheads and Cheese Balls” column today: Don’t be fooled by the column that I got. I’m still Maureen from the block. But Obama’s not.
Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.