Critics Spit on Spitzer TV Debut

Parker Spitzer 'a load of obnoxious, self-important noise'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 5, 2010 3:54 AM CDT
Updated Oct 5, 2010 6:20 AM CDT

Kathleen Parker and Eliot Spitzer's CNN talkfest Parker Spitzer made its debut last night and critics say the program by the former New York governor and Washington Post columnist is as bad as predicted.

  • The pacing, and the whole show, seems weird, complains Max Read at Gawker. Guests, including columnist Thomas Frank, conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart, consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren, and Social Network writer Aaron Sorkin, "were hustled on and off in about 5 minutes," with Spitzer completely dominating every conversation and Parker not saying much.

  • Parker Spitzer is bad, and not even in an interesting way, writes Dan Kennedy at the Guardian. It never gained momentum because "the two hosts were moving along parallel tracks that never quite intersected," he writes, predicting that the show will survive for 6 months, tops.
  • CNN's sadly mistaken if it believes this "load of obnoxious, self-important noise" can compete head-to-head with the The O'Reilly Factor on Fox, writes David Zurawik at the Baltimore Sun. Bill O'Reilly is popular because of his "unwillingness to tolerate hypocrisy in any guest, right or left," Zurawik notes, while Spitzer is "a former politician and poster boy for hypocrisy—a one-time prosecutor who prosecuted prostitutes even as he was paying excessive amounts of money to them for sex."
(More Eliot Spitzer stories.)

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