The AP's Lynn Elber writes a predictable "curmudgeon with a heart of gold"profile of CNN's Jack Caffery and his grouchy histrionics on "The Situation Room":
...Cafferty, a Pied Piper for viewers who are as mad as hell and have the Internet capability to tell us, is truly a modern electronic journalist.
On CNN's daily political news program "The Situation Room," Cafferty lays his opinion on the line right next to that of online correspondents who respond, sometimes in the thousands, to his topical questions and complaints.
He leaves the loud baying to other TV commentators, instead favoring a world-weary growl that approaches soothing. But his refusal to hew to a consistent partisan checklist on issues is startling; this guy would probably defy a label instructing "dry clean only."
And he has style. He's dour, he's dyspeptic, he's any choice of words that describe a chronic dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and he knows how to convey it...
Blah blah blah. Cafferty's growl growl growl, rugged-individualist in the land of of spoiled "programmed anchorettes," as he calls other television journalists with better ratings, schtick is nothing new. Every time I see and hear Cafferty I'm reminded of the grizzled fisherman character Quint, played by Robert Shaw, in the movie "Jaws," specifically this exchange with Richard Dreyfuss' marine biologist character Hooper:
Quint: You've got city boy hands, Hooper. You been countin' money all your life.
Hooper: I don't need this working-class-hero crap.
Exactly. I come from the working class, a lot of the "hair-sprayed, programmed anchorettes" do too, so do many cable news viewers, and while I can't speak for anyone but myself I'd like to echo Hooper's sentiment. Give me a break, Jack. It's not like you're getting shelled in the Gaza Strip or anything.
