The thing is I so admire and am grateful to the FDL gang (and many other libloggers) that the difference between their brilliant writing and lackadaisical oral presentations gives me a case of cognitive dissonance. Jane, Marcy, Christy did a great job with their video comments at the Libby trial, It was obvious they prepared. Josh does a usually impressive daily video. Sitting around gassing is a petri dish for growing “um you know I mean sort of” Nobody that you really enjoy listening to indulges these stalls.

Not everyone was president of the Cambridge debating society like Arianna. But if just the “um you know I mean sort ofs” were toned down it would help libloggers whup the hairdos in presentation as well as content on internet video and TeeVee.

He has, as in the punchline, the perfect face (and glasses!) for radio.

And his voice! Oy! In tone, a spoken raga of high, nasal, herky-jerky droning. In content, a looping logorrhea, larded with “y’know,” “I mean,” the occasional “right!?,” an “um” or three, and the Jedi mind-befogging “sort of.”

Big Media Matt has trouble orally expressing a coherent thought, never mind a “razor sharp” political insight.

A full hour of this would be, to update Mark Twain, chloroform in streaming video.

I have no research but I think that non- youknow’ers are taken more seriously.