That a smug self-centeredness is the most important requirement in a media political commentator? It does seem to survive most testing I've done in my mind. Think of Christopher Hitchens, for example.
This theory may explain why there are so many right-winger pundits, for one thing. And why they seem so unbearable to me. Maybe I have been wrong all these years, and never just got the point of this all media stuff? Now all we lefties need is a training academy in pompousness and self-puffing.