By OcJim

We have had the familiar panel-type talk shows for decades, including Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and the McLaughlin Group. More recently Candy Crowley, Christiane Amanpour and Fox News entries have entered the showroom, though the latter could easily be labeled as just right-wing rancor and rambling ridicule.

Before Reagan and the demise of FCC Fairness Doctrine, all were fairly balanced, even conscientious. But since then, the erosion toward mindless partisan acrimony and unchallenged distorted claims, what we have become familiar with is acerbic attack politics. This has been the rule for most, perhaps with the exception of Up with Chris Hayes on MSNBC on Saturday and Sunday morning.

For example, on one recent weekend on the aged CBS Face the Nation, Michele Bachmann in response to Bob Schieffer’s softball, dispute-inviting, questions, calls herself a “constitutional conservative” at least three times (rote learning, folks). Key words are important for politicians who believe the viewers can’t process too many words.

Iowa Republican Representative Steve King, supposedly the Iowa kingmaker (excuse the pun), parlays smoke and mirrors regarding his presidential choice. White House Correspondent, Norah O’Donnell and Political Director, John Dickerson, sporting a White House backdrop, were introduced as stars by Bob Schieffer. When prompted, both stars imparted pedestrian views about politics.

Perhaps extremism is something we all take like a grain of salt anymore, but Bachmann and King are a pair who get regular forums to spout their extremist views, views not representative of the majority, something which major media sources don’t seem to mind when they are often invited on mainstream shows like Face the Nation and Meet the Press, and of course, are standard fare on “Fox Dribble,” presented as news.

But extremism is often passed like excrement, Steve King with his frequent foolish rants, including Obama “would be impeached” if the nation falls into default, and irrational claims like “offering birth control to women could eventually kill off the human species.”

Perhaps the mainstream media doesn’t really listen to, or has grown accustomed to, the nonsense that Bachmann spouts, explaining why she is invited to mainstream shows like Face the Nation. Whether she is speaking of “Newt Romney” at the Iowa debate, touting the benefits of water boarding, or blurting out historical inaccuracies, her words are often a blight on any reasonable discussion.

One of last month’s syllogistic cough-ups was “The ‘Great Society’ has not worked and it’s put us into the modern welfare state. If you look at China, they don’t have food stamps…They save for their own retirement.”

Do we want to listen to people with incoherent messages, whom we would consider an embarrassment during family discussions, let alone invited to speak before a whole nation and doted on for endorsements like Rep. Steve King?

Now whom do we want to listen to?

I would say that Up with Chris Hayes and his panel representatives are one answer. I have watched it for the past several weeks and am impressed by the intelligent discussion of issues, which for the most part do not introduce lame political dogma like you would see coming out of the mouths of invitees to Face the Nation, Meet the Press, or the McLaughlin Group. For example Sen. Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin on a recent Meet the Press and Mitch McConnell, Rick Perry, and Liz Cheney on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace are icons of partisan babble.

I have heard nothing but intelligent, well-measured, coherent arguments coming from Hayes’ guests, including Bob Herbert of Demos.org, Melissa Harris-Perry, a professor at Tulane, Reihan Salam, a columnist at the Daily Beast, and Chrystia Freeland of Reuters News.

This is not to say that other shows like Fareed Zakaria GPS are not high caliber, but we progressives do tend to go off, what with a steady diet of trained (like baboons) right-wing demagogues who have polluted our media for some 2 decades making one retch, hearing one distortion after another, with scripted litanies of key phrases like “job-killing Obamacare,” for example.

They are taught a unified message that enlists rant, spouts syllogistic babble, and ignores reason, knowing that the corporate media will not challenge their garbage.

When I find a worthwhile news show, I tend to rant as well.

Ridicule me, but while you are, don’t rot your brain with right-wing programmed learning.