I'm inclined to ignore maniacs of all kinds. People come up to you on the street, you can give them some spare change and move on, but it's generally a bad idea to listen if they start raving. Similarly I don't listen to talk radio and usually mute CNN's Lou Dobbs when he gets that gleam in his eye, and "Hardball"? It's like the Quiet Room in a psychiatric ward. You don't see it, but at the end of every episode two burly guys have to hold Chris Matthews down while a doctor gives him an injection. "Bush! Waff! Waff! Rahhh!" "Chris? Chris. Okay, I need you to hold still, buddy."

But I might be wrong, because the public dementia seems to be worse than I thought. This piece by Peter Daou, mentioned at Eschaton, points out that TV networks are legitimizing the craziness by having the maniacs on all the time, as if a call for the death of some politician is a worthwhile view.

The issue here is not the damage done to America's public discourse - we already know that liberals have become the equivalent of terrorists in the minds of millions of Americans. Nor is the issue the media's hunger for ratings (what's next, snuff films?) The issue is the establishment media's symbiotic relationship with these rightwing blatherers:

After all, crazy people are all right out on the street or in rehab. You don't want them editing your local paper though, do you?