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Who’s Really the “Best Political Team on Television”?

If you’ve tuned in CNN this election season, you’ve heard the network’s claim of “the best political team on television” repeated as many as 50 times a day by anchors like Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer. But how do the networks’ teams stack up?

Written by Washingtonian Staff | Published on March 3, 2008

When asked for their “political teams,” none of the networks claimed the pundits who babble on, even though the networks fill much of their primary coverage with analysis from the likes of Bill Bennett, Donna Brazile, and even Karl Rove. Here’s how the networks compare:

	CNN	Fox News	MSNBC/NBC News	ABC News	CBS
Big names	Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper	Brit Hume, Shepard Smith	Tim Russert, Brian Williams	George Stephanopoulos, Charlie Gibson	Bob Schieffer, Katie Couric
Embarrassing incident	Had to shelve pundits Paul Begala and James Carville for their ties to Hillary Clinton’s camp.	Bill Kristol’s ongoing neocon defense.	Chris Matthews’s mouth has gotten him in trouble so often that Media Matters has launched aMatthewsMonitor Web site.	Consultant Alexis Debat was fired after he faked interviews with newsmakers for another news organization.	Video of Couric leaked online showing her fussing and swearing off-air during the New Hampshire primary.
Best on-air reporters	Jessica Yellin, Ed Henry	Carl Cameron	The Davids: Gregory andShuster	Jake Tapper	Sharyl Attkisson
Typical pundit	Bill Schneider	Juan Williams	Howard Fineman	Cokie Roberts	Jeff Greenfield
Behind-the-scenes force	DC bureau chief David Bohrman	Owner Rupert Murdoch	Meet the Press executive producer Betsy Fischer	Senior executive political director Virginia Moseley	Political director Molly Levinson
Online coverage	Blitzer’s Best Political Podcast	Poli-Ticker by campaign embeds	The First Read by Chuck Todd	The Note by Rick Klein	Horserace by Brian Montopoli, Vaughn Ververs, and others
Coverage makes you ask . . .	Why is legal analyst Jeff Toobin analyzing exit polls?	Is that the same blonde who was on last hour?	Does Pat Buchanan ever stop talking?	How much does Stephanopoulos work out?	Is Couric having any fun?
Slogan	“Best political team on television”	“The best political team ever”	“The place for politics”	None	“America’s most watched network”
Annoying-patter level	3 megaphones	4.5 megaphones	4 megaphones	2 megaphones	1 megaphone