Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Pundit Portraits: Kathleen Parker and Chris Cillizza (Patreon)

Published:
2023-11-28 10:00:04
Imported:
2026-06

Downloads

Content

This episode is the first in an ongoing series wherein Peter and Michael explore the brains of America's pundits. We start with Kathleen Parker, the platonic ideal of a rich white lady, and Chris Cillizza, a pioneer in talking about politics without saying anything.

You can play this episode directly through Patreon or use our RSS feed to add it to your podcast app. Here are the instructions from Patreon.

As always, leave suggestions for bonus episodes in the comments!

Comments

Johanna

unrelated to this episode but i wanted to ask: are there any updates on the shelf Peter's wife wanted him to put up?

Vladimira

he mentioned it briefly on bluesky but let michael do the da vinci code, as a treat 😁

Jamie Fritz

This pundit is the ultimate representative of the “leopards eating people’s faces” crowd.

SHODAN

Will be listening with interest to this. They sound a lot like UK newspaper columnists who seem to be almost constantly wrong about things and provide no value whatsoever.

Julie Ehlers

Kathleen Parker has been the bane of my existence for a long time, so I appreciate this. I’ll also reiterate what I said on Twitter: if you ever do a novel, The Celestine Prophecy, which was a major sensation at the time, is the way to go.

Max Von C

We need answers!

Ryan Harrington

You nailed it, no need to even listen to the episode 🤣

Laura Beth

Yes this is the commentary I need!

Justin Hamilton

"George Will wrote a book about baseball" is a sedative more potent than any opiate.

Dylan white

Someone else put it up. Someone who just *looks* like Peter

T

You should've had a TW for Chris Cilliza's voice

SHODAN

Oh god they even mentioned one of the columnists being transphobic as well. Transphobia and particularly Guardian columnists in the UK just cannot stop doing it.

Lessly Cepeda

The “anyone?” at the end of that absurd piece is going to live in my head rent free for a WHILE

Danny K

Yeah the British Media landscape is if anything even worse than this. Even the BBC just pursues politics as entertainment and punditry. Politicians get attacked for flubbing lines or appearing to be unpopular. And what's worse is we all just accept it mostly.

Now We're Talking

I’ve always said Cillizza is the epitome of the Peter Principle - he continues to rise to his highest level of incompetence.

William Keith

I have never understood how Cillizza even has a job (though I notice he changes jobs a LOT). I have a Black friend who thinks that the the proof of systemic racism is the continued success of white people who are barely even mediocre. Looking at CC, I can't argue. He's worse than Brooks.

SHODAN

I've tried other sources that aren't the established media and while yes I do a lot more fact checking as a result I've learnt a lot from them. I'm just hoping for the legacy media landscape to collapse in the next few years because it's just so bad, even The Guardian is not a progressive newspaper.

Robin Raccoon

As you read off Kathleen’s 2016 predictions my mind started going STRIKE 1 STRIKE 2 … STRIKE 335

Very Very Urban

Cilizza’s imaginary North Carolinian in the hotel room is clearly preparing to cheat on their live in partner. Deep, heady stuff. They’re going to make a mistake like Kay Hagan did 😔

The Mad Jay Woman

I appreciate the Pundit Portrait format because I’m mostly aware of who these pundits are but at this point it’s been five job and two personality changes since I first became acquainted with them

AJL

Now there is a cursed title if I've ever heard one

Pati

I love how both Peter and Michael totally committed to their own completely different pronunciation of Cillizza’s name with no conversation about it. This is the appropriate level of analysis 😅

Chloe

“Thanks to the brilliance of our tripartite government, nothing gets done or changes ever”

Cappy Spruance

I really loved this and look forward to more in the future!!!

D A

"George Will" is a sedative. I'd be asleep for the rest of the sentence.

Carson Rietveld

Please post this in the main feed. I've been trying to explain this to my friends who are post-Trump political junkies. It's fine but it's basically just like watching/consuming spots media. It just feels like you are doing something "real" or "important" just by consuming the content.

Allen

Ngl I do kind of like the “Brett Kavanaugh is a Generic Douchey White Guy with no distinguishing characteristics” argument. Though why he should be a Supreme Court justice is still unclear.

Allen

Giving the man the level of respect he deserves.

Jo Miller

Omg decant this shit directly into my veins

Allen

Also, I’m reminded of the legal analysts who were telling people in late 2018 that William “helped Bush Sr obstruct the Iran-Contra investigation” Barr was a straight shooting institutionalist who wouldn’t politicize the Justice Department in favor of Trump.

Allen

As an American the level of venomous, sadistic, unashamed elitism in the British press is on another level. I suppose that’s what happens when a significant chunk of a country’s media is owned by Rupert Murdoch. If more of the mainstream American media was like Fox News, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal (specifically the op-ed pages)…fucking hell. But yes, centrist/center-right columnists in multiple countries have that particular kind of brain worms that leads to transphobia and whining about “Cancel Culture.” It’s so cursed.

Allen

The shelf is my favorite recurring character on this podcast.

Jo Miller

My job from 2009 on required me to watch cable news all day (which is why I now look 106), and your point at the end about the role of network executives is dead-on. It threw me back to something I wrote in 2017 about the guy who hired Cillizza for his enormous hack-pundit stable (WaPo: ‘Cillizza says that Zucker has been a “reader of my stuff” and has a relationship with Jeffrey Jacobs, Cillizza’s agent. That’s how the discussions got started. Though Cillizza received no guarantees about air time and other details, “they’ve got 24 hours to fill 7 days a week and I feel good based on the conversations. I think they value what I bring.’) (start at 3:44). https://youtu.be/cSg9c4E3KU0&t=3m44s

Taylor Westerlind

Wait, I realize that you meant his wife…. I’m smarter than that comment made me sound 😅

Minda Cerva

Great episode! But how did you fail to address that you each pronounce Cillizza differently? 😂

Cate Kneale

All columnists in the UK should honestly just be imprisoned somewhere for being horrific and mostly genocidal, except of course Adrian Chiles who we should make our king.

Siri Before Dark

Omg this is a fantastic bonus episode series. Can you put NYT columnist Nick Kristof in the queue as well? Nothing would give me greater joy than to hear Mike and Peter rip Kristof apart 🤣

Jamie Madden

Love it! Please do one on local liberal newspaper troll columns like Seattle’s Danny Westneat or Boston’s Jeff Jacoby. Their work has a body count!

Tim Hammack

LOL! I hear you--though in some respects, the "molasses" is a "feature, not a bug" (if Democracy "moves fast" somebody probably was excluded from the table). Though... yeah... it sure can feel like a "bug" lately.

Ben Gran

Do George Will!

Tim Hammack

Haha, but isn't Kristof... well... doesn't he generally speak up for the dis-empowered? The true ire seems reserved for crass manipulators who take advantage of people in need; for grifters using their fabricated expertise to push harmful ideas; for establishment people who assert their sincerity while actually shilling for powerful interests.

Kristin Miller

I'm pretty disappointed with the comment about straight women not watching sports. I know it was part of a larger point about the silliness of men watching football/football punditry, but come on. I admire you both a lot, but those kinds of comments are so common among guys who don't respect women and constantly punch down at women sports reporters/athletes/etc. I never nit pick small things and I don't want to be "that person", but this one really stung. Maybe it just touched on a personal sore spot.

sam

me, a lesbian, listening to this ep: *under my breath* he doesn’t even know that the bachelor is an abc franchise

i'm frankly amazed that harper didn't directly misgender or deadname mulvaney once in her entire article, nor was the word "transgenderism" employed. how incredibly low must the bar be, that i was briefly about to hand it to her

Siri Before Dark

Thats funny because “class manipulator, a grifter who uses fabricated expertise to push harmful ideas, and establishment person who asserts his sincerity while actually shilling for powerful interests” is *precisely* how I would describe Kristof. Kristof is a neolib grifter who has a history of Extremely Bad Takes. (This article is merely a starting point: https://fair.org/home/kristofs-moralistic-journalism-was-often-full-of-holes/ ) I spoke with him on the phone when he was researching his NYT hit piece on P*rnhub and I found his treatment of that story (and *my* story) in particular to be highly problematic. He knowingly platformed a anti-LGBT, anti-sex workers rights religious org while claiming to both speak for victims of legitimate cases of trafficking while very intentionally conflating consensual sex work with sex trafficking. And don’t even get me started on his unsuccessful big for OR governor, where he was blocked from candidacy because he basically lied about his residency status, having primarily lived in NYC for decades before he left the NYT to run for office.

Siri Before Dark

Netflix actually made a documentary that was instigated by Kristof’s P*rnhub article fiasco. It’s called “Money Shot: The P*rnhub Story” (and yes I am in it)

Jesse Ingber

As much as I generally prefer book-based eps, this does seem like it could be a great fit with Michael's background

Siri Before Dark

the app doesn’t let you edit comments :( it would probably be more accurate to say that Kristof knowingly platforms grifters (especially ones of the “Save The Children” variety) but he himself doesn’t really fit the definition. But IMO he’s close enough to it, so it still counts. 😂

minnie

My personal pundit nemeses are Nate Silver & Matt Yglesias — my dream is to set them both out to sea in row boats with no oars and no Wifi

AJL

One of the things I found most obnoxious about Cilizza was his fanboy obsession with Ivanka Trump.

Kimberly

I don’t know if it’s that much easier than being a political pundit, you’ve actually read like, several books so that’s already a point for you

Salem Barrett-Brown

I like the new format 👌 Good mix with the coverage of articles As an Aussie I'd be interested in coverage of pundits in other countries.

Nicole

This episode was fantastic!

Johanna

What was the article about the media that has aged like wine?

The Rae Ryan Experiance

Your Shirley Manson reference in the last episode sent me! I’m a huge garbage fan. Thank you for your service.

Emily Ahrens

If you had not told me the audio of Chris Cillizza was Chris Cillizza, I would have thought it was Tucker Carlson. They sound eerily similar.

John Simons

The entire time you were talking about Chris Cillizza, I was picturing Chris Hayes in my mind. It was only after the podcast was over that I stopped to look up who was who. If it wasn't for Google, I'd never be able to tell these people apart.

Kristin works for the government

The prediction thing is absurd. I cannot tell you how many times I've heard the following exchange: "Is Trump going to prison?" "Absolutely!" (Looking at you Neal Katyal) Just because a person has some expertise does not give them second sight... wtf? Cops and prosecutors ALWAYS think they have an airtight case.

Caitlin Feasey

Hey Peter what's up with the Men are from Mars type comment about men watching sports and women watching reality TV? Love the show, just felt like that one needing calling out.

H e ll a m a l a i s e

The MP music at the end 🤣🤣 love my little podcast crossover moments

Kirsten Greenwell

Do Andrew Sullivan so I can own a relative who reads his substack at our next family gathering

Ken Brumberger

Cillizza: 60 Takeaways from Michael and Peter’s Pundit Episode:

Kit Sedia

Will you be doing Matt Yglesias or too low hanging?

Maggie Pfeiffer

My parents watch 5-6 hours of CBS literally every day. When I was there for Thanksgiving it struck me how deeply we are living in alternate universes from each other. They listen to these talking heads incessantly and don’t understand why I don’t want to hang on their every word.

L

Omg I had to comment because of the “Cillizza’s analysis” section. It reminded me of a PhD seminar, I attended. The candidate presented how she had spent the last three years traveling to Italy (all expenses paid for her research) and interviewing all of farmers who produce olive oil. Her end conclusion was that while the farmers are harmed by the effects of capitalism, they were also reliant on the capitalistic market to sell their products. In that moment, I questioned all of my life choices, I didn’t realize that finding a way to convince people to fund trips to Italy, to get an advanced degree to say absolutely nothing at the end of that time was an option. Her conclusions may sound stupid, but I would say she is very smart. While I was working a university job for a dumb wage, she did that. Brilliant 😂

HWK

LE CHEESERIE!!!

Sofia

You are anti-pundit pundits!

Katie

The series really moves the Venn diagram of what IBCK is doing and what Mic Wright is doing on British media closer together.

AliceH

Lol, same here! The BAR is in HELL

O C

PETER & MICHAEL 😫 something is going on with your Patreon - new episodes aren’t available to some of us and the first time I fixed it by canceling then rejoining but tried that again and for some reason the new episodes aren’t updating - I’m not the only one having this problem so hope this brings it to your attention. Great work!

Jessica

Petition for you to do Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. I feel like these are two people speaking to and about particular kind of tech person. I feel like Kara's been in the news a bit lately because she was such an Elon stan. And I can't seem to get away from Galloway's bad takes on Threads.

Julie D'Angelo

OMG did anyone see the latest take from Kathleen Parker????? Telling Kamala Harris to step aside because of… her laugh? It’s such word salad I can’t find a point and it’s framed like everyone knows what she’s talking about. I just can’t with this woman.

Casey Jayne

I mean, it was a stereotype that’s broadly observable even if not highly accurate. He started by asking if they watch bravo to explain the sports thing so obv doesn’t just generally think everyone watches it- he’s just looking for an example. I don’t get the problem (I watch neither but I know people who do)

John McFadin

This is my take of that situation - completely anecdotal, but every woman in my life (immediate and extended family, coworkers, and even every past girlfriend) has both hated sports and enjoyed the type of TV everyone calls reality. That might lead me to the generalization that all women are this way. I could easily see that being the case for Peter, and in the attempt at making a joke, chose a bit poorly and went for the low hanging. I think condemning him for this would be an overreaction though, as it's incredibly obvious where his heart/politics lie.

Skippy the Alien

imagine if a man said that about Kamala Harris. What an asinine criticism of the VP

Spencer Ellsworth

I'd love to hear Michael & Peter's take on Galloway. He will get on a rant and I will be listening, saying, "yeah, okay, yeah... wait what?"

stevie

just want to say that this podcast and the maintenance phase are what is keeping me from ending it all rn… i have covid and i just moved into my new apartment to immediately discover i have covid and i have been trapped in a studio apartment with a deflated air mattress, no wifi, the first few days, no electricity and it was like 100 degrees, i have to stand in a very specific corner of my house to get enough cell service to be able to listen to a podcast and my phone gets so hot it feels like its going to blow up, but it is WORTH IT!! you guys are keeping me from losing my sanity completely so thank you for that!!!

ES

Biggest mood. I hope you’re doing better now.

selina

Listening to the trump predictions today after he won again. We live in hell 😭😭

Bridget

“no one gets to be a dictator” is feeling pretty different now

Jenalyn Myggland

Listening to this in June 2025…. After trump dropped bombs on Iran was a moment.

Matt

July 2025 and lol Parker is a goddamn moron.

Anna

Listening to the first ten minutes of this given the current state of global affairs in March of 2026 was a whiplash I wasn’t really expecting.

Jamie Davis

“The nuking Iran is the only part she’s right about” - maybe hold that thought re: 2026

amloth

listening to this in 2026 😐

Cyb

Omg, relistening to this and she just got more wrong 🤡

Brian

Coming from the future to tell everyone that Kathleen was dead wrong about Trump being held in check

Andu Z

me listening to this in 2026 at the prediction that Trump won’t nuke Iran: