RB may not be the sharpest tool in the shed but he sees the world through his own eyes rather than in service of an agenda, and that makes him appealing.

I stopped watching cable news completely about 10 years ago and mostly about 15 years ago. What I remembered about the old days was that pundits and commentators used to have their own identities and ideas. Sometime around that 15 year ago period I noticed that everyone who came on pretty much was a shill regurgitating the party line (and the party line is usually a lot less interesting and more predictable than a person’s independent opinion), though it seems to be what keeps viewers/readers coming back. For me, why on earth would I bother to watch (or read) someone like that? I can get all the push emails full of spin I want for free direct from the pols (or for a token contribution to their activist groups). I started noticing that newspaper editors were getting the same emails I was and then pushing those memes in stories. How can you charge for something a reader or viewer can get for free almost anywhere? I suppose there is a patina of authenticity for some rubes if they read it a few days later in the NYT or FT?

Anyway, what is appealing about RB is that he is himself, not part of the machine and not flogging the same old tropes. Also he is funny! Thanks