<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4611.1300" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>Insufferable though he is, here's Alterman doing what Alterman does best: picking apart TV pundits, in this case John "WRONG!" McLaughlin  --</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><A href="http://thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020311&s=alterman">http://thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020311&s=alterman</A></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In my FAIR days, I did McLaughlin's CNBC show twice in two weeks. My first appearance so amused the old fraud that he brought me back immediately, and one of the bookers suggested I could be a regular on the show. Well, I thought, nice gig, but wouldn't want it under false pretenses. So, in my second appearance (the topic having to do with the tabloidization of TV news), I went right after McLaughlin, calling his main showcase "The McLaughlin Group" an human puppet show, excessively loud, and the acme of the very thing we were discussing. (I remember that around this time Cockburn, who was appearing on C-SPAN, was asked what he thought of "Group," and he replied, "I think it advances the notion that journalists are quite mad." Wish I'd used that!) After a commercial break, McLaughlin, who'd been feeding me early, ignored me in favor of the other guests, so I had to butt in if I was going to be heard. Afterwards he shook all the participants hands except mine, and waddled off followed by his faithful interns who called him "Doctor." </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Never appeared again after that. Sigh.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>DP</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>