Alex Parene at Salon on the Sunday morning political chat shows:

I don’t watch the Sunday shows. Basically ever. I watch clips if something particularly stupid happened, but for the most part, you can get everything you need to know about what happens on these shows by reading the brilliant liveblog by the Huffington Post’s Jason Linkins, America’s foremost Sunday show interpreter. While no one should pay attention to these shows, as long as millions of Americans watch them under the mistaken impression that they’re seeing serious discussions of our most pressing issues with our wisest media observers and most influential political leaders, they should probably be monitored.

I confess that I used to watch them.  But when they kept booking John McCain long after his usefulness as anything other than a garden gnome expired and George F. Will lost the epigram standoff with Edward Albee, I happily gave them up.  I will watch “Up” with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, but most of the time I’m doing the crossword puzzle and getting ready to go to meeting.  Life is too short to bother with idiots.