I'm struck by how many linked references now are simply videos of somebody reading something.

Maybe you watch these shows to keep up with pop culture. Way too many people rely on them to keep up with the news.

Watch Olbermann, a ranting loon no different than Anne Coulter; watch Daily Show, an insufferably smug liberal comedy take on the news; and then watch the Colbert Report, another smug liberal imitating a cartoon idea of a conservative.

Hey, now you know everything you need to know about an issue.

What's really scary is how many big wheels in politics and elsewhere believe that these shows are the place to be "seen."

Think Olbermann will end up another Howard Beale?