for these cable talk shows. It has always been the base format--people are brought on not because they are knowledgeable, but because they can be counted on to devolve into an incoherent shriek fest. Anyone who refuses to play the game soon finds that the phone stops ringing.

Matthews' show has been as culpable as any at perpetuating this practice, so today's performance reversed a small part of his bad karma.

But they are only seeing the fruits of their labors.