Let's take a look at pundits in the modern era going back to the origins of cable TV. Pat Buchanan is someone who jumps out as one of the original pundits, he had been a communications spokesperson, speechwriter for President Nixon left, became a syndicated columnist, wrote books, then started doing talk radio shows. And when cnn started, he was there with Crossfire and then later with the McLaughlin group in 1982. And before you know what he was on national TV, seven days a week, Robert Novak, another very, very frequent early commentator in the whole pundit business now he was someone who was a reporter and a pundit and a fixture on Crossfire CNN, his own shows on CNN as well as Meet the Press. There are a lot of different ways of becoming pundits the old way the traditional way was, work for someone who becomes president get high level political content.
Or as a speaker of the house, Chris Matthews is one who has been around since the 1970s. Or just become really famous through something else, and then leverage that fame on two gigs as a free pundit, a free expert, a guest on TV talk shows, then as a paid pundit, and in some cases, doing it to the point where you get your own show. Now, most hosts of shows aren't really pundants. They're not giving that many opinions, but some are. Bill O'Reilly is a talk show host but he's also a pundit because so much of his show is giving his own opinions. Now his way to the top was by being a traditional reporter working in small markets all the way up through CBS.
Then branching out into more entertainment shows before getting into his current incarnation. As a political talk show host and pundit so there's no one set way anymore of getting in. The most common way is become famous at something it could be through a best selling book. It could be through a political campaign, even a failed political campaign as in the case of crystal ball of msnbc. There was a time when the older you were the more gray here you were the Robert Novak's the pat buchanan as the john McLaughlin's were seem to be having the serious that the intellectual heft the gravitas to be a pundit. These days, that certainly no longer applies.
Look no further than msnbc with some of the 25 year olds they've hired to host shows. And there's an awful lot of pretty young faces male and female on cable news. So these days, it's not just about how much experience you have. It's not just about having worked for the White House. There are a lot of have different avenues to explore. But there are some consistent things you can't necessarily control if you work for the president, or if you picked a Winning Campaign, but you can control certain skills that are absolutely essential.
And that's what we're going to focus on in this course. So let's hop right in.