It's a gravitas-off!

Now most people after the historic election we've all just witnessed would probably blog about the candidates, analyze who won and why, etc. But there's plenty of that already. Also I'm not an expert, and I don't really care about all that hootenany. What I thought would be more fun would be a gravitas-off! In this post, I'll pit my two favorite commentators of the election (not including anchors/reporters), David Gergen and George Will, and let you decide who's got more of that serious substantive je ne sais quois we seek out in our talking heads.



I find my own perspective during the election season interesting. I used to hold the view that opinion pages of newspapers and pundits on TV were worthless and, if anything, inhibitive to what media outlets are supposed to do. I ferociously opposed reading editorials and columns; I used to think, why would I want to read someone else's opinion? Just give me the facts, and I'll come up with my own.

But recently, I've found myself skimming or skipping entirely the news sections of papers and gravitating right to the opinion page (I mostly read the local DNR, the Washington Post as well as CNN.com, MSNBC.com, whatever looks interesting on Google News and, of course, the South County News). I even started occasionally reading some of Bernie Miklasz' sports columns. That's scary.

Now this could be that news reporting has gotten so nearly instantaneous that reading a full-length story in a paper or even online has become tedious, compared to quick online news blurbs or videos. (For an example of the type of presentation I think most news outlets will gravitate toward soon, check out my co-worker's news blog. Or it could be that I just find them more interesting at this point in history, or maybe something has happened in the core of who I am, like maturation. Nah, that can't be it.

I chose to watch, primarily, CNN for daily coverage and ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday mornings. Upon reflection, I believe this is at least partly because the two analysts I liked to listen to most were CNN's Gergen and ABC's Will, who is a regular 'roundtable' member.

So anyway, check out the vids of each, and vote in the comments section on who you like more (though I'm sure Jeff will support a write-in candidate). If this is successful, maybe I'll do a similar post on anchors. But there's already been research on that.