- Jul 2, 2010
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This week is "Power Players Week" on Jeopardy. Tuesday the contestants, playing for charities, were Anderson Cooper, Lara Logan (60 Minutes) and Michael Steele (former Republican party Chair). Did anyone here see this show?
Each of the three is a reporter or analyst, usually dealing with current events, government and politics. Being a fan of the show, I watched the episode. Basically, it was an epic fail, where none of the contestants seemed to have a clue about many topics. They were thrown many slow and fat pitches, and they swung and missed badly. From watching Alex Trebek, it seemed even he was mystified by the ignorance being displayed.
On these celebrity show, the questions are geared toward their supposed area of expertise and are often easy to answer. But not Tuesday night. Here are some of the answers/questions they missed:
None of them could identify Cam Newton, the Carolina quarterback, MVP, Superbowl champ etc. Anderson Cooper had an easy "double jeopardy" question where he needed to come up with a word that means both "battlefield vehicle" and "home for pet fish". Perhaps like "Tank". He missed that one, and seemed confused by it all. He also missed a word that meant a snake with a hood, such as "cobra". Ouch!
None of them knew that a Soviet Leader of the 20th century known as the "man of steel" was Josef Stalin. Not one. Seems like a fairly basic historical factoid that any astute analyst or commentator would know. But not this group.
A tougher one that they all missed was who the "immortal HeLa Cells" were named after. It was Henrietta Lacks; none of them knew that one, but I would bet an everyday contestant would have gotten that one.
None of them knew that the "Cayman" model of a German sports car was made by Porsche. Logan had a shot at knowing that an "unofficial vote" that a scarecrow would be familiar with is a "straw poll" or "straw vote". That one amazed me, and I was shouting at the TV screen as she stumbled over that one, but I guess she didn't hear me.
When it came to the White House, none of them knew that the person who helps the First Lady plan State Dinners and such has the alliterative title of "Social Secretary".
They did not know that Stephen Hawking was the author of "A Brief History of Time".
None of them knew that the man who was a four star general and Secretary of State was Colin Powell (not that long ago, folks). I would have expected at least one of them to know this, but nope.
It was really a fiasco, and each contestant looked foolish. Steele did not answer one question before the first break, and then after that he managed just a few. He seemed pathetically clueless.
The Final Jeopardy question says it all. The clue came down to knowing that Pakistan is the country that borders both India and Afghanistan. Given what a pivotal area that is to much of the news today, I was flabbergasted that Steele could not come up with even a guess. Cooper answered correctly but stated he was unsure about it. Only Logan seemed sure of having the correct response. She won the game.
Recently, I read a book which in part discussed people who are considered "experts". The results of a study of political analysts found that the ones we see the most frequently, or who are considered the top experts, get it wrong more often than less famous analysts. The point of the study was that fame and number of media appearances does not correlate with knowledge and wisdom. In this episode of Jeopardy, we can see that finding validated.
Maybe it would have been better if they had sent up researchers that the news shows use, rather than the talking heads.
Each of the three is a reporter or analyst, usually dealing with current events, government and politics. Being a fan of the show, I watched the episode. Basically, it was an epic fail, where none of the contestants seemed to have a clue about many topics. They were thrown many slow and fat pitches, and they swung and missed badly. From watching Alex Trebek, it seemed even he was mystified by the ignorance being displayed.
On these celebrity show, the questions are geared toward their supposed area of expertise and are often easy to answer. But not Tuesday night. Here are some of the answers/questions they missed:
None of them could identify Cam Newton, the Carolina quarterback, MVP, Superbowl champ etc. Anderson Cooper had an easy "double jeopardy" question where he needed to come up with a word that means both "battlefield vehicle" and "home for pet fish". Perhaps like "Tank". He missed that one, and seemed confused by it all. He also missed a word that meant a snake with a hood, such as "cobra". Ouch!
None of them knew that a Soviet Leader of the 20th century known as the "man of steel" was Josef Stalin. Not one. Seems like a fairly basic historical factoid that any astute analyst or commentator would know. But not this group.
A tougher one that they all missed was who the "immortal HeLa Cells" were named after. It was Henrietta Lacks; none of them knew that one, but I would bet an everyday contestant would have gotten that one.
None of them knew that the "Cayman" model of a German sports car was made by Porsche. Logan had a shot at knowing that an "unofficial vote" that a scarecrow would be familiar with is a "straw poll" or "straw vote". That one amazed me, and I was shouting at the TV screen as she stumbled over that one, but I guess she didn't hear me.
When it came to the White House, none of them knew that the person who helps the First Lady plan State Dinners and such has the alliterative title of "Social Secretary".
They did not know that Stephen Hawking was the author of "A Brief History of Time".
None of them knew that the man who was a four star general and Secretary of State was Colin Powell (not that long ago, folks). I would have expected at least one of them to know this, but nope.
It was really a fiasco, and each contestant looked foolish. Steele did not answer one question before the first break, and then after that he managed just a few. He seemed pathetically clueless.
The Final Jeopardy question says it all. The clue came down to knowing that Pakistan is the country that borders both India and Afghanistan. Given what a pivotal area that is to much of the news today, I was flabbergasted that Steele could not come up with even a guess. Cooper answered correctly but stated he was unsure about it. Only Logan seemed sure of having the correct response. She won the game.
Recently, I read a book which in part discussed people who are considered "experts". The results of a study of political analysts found that the ones we see the most frequently, or who are considered the top experts, get it wrong more often than less famous analysts. The point of the study was that fame and number of media appearances does not correlate with knowledge and wisdom. In this episode of Jeopardy, we can see that finding validated.
Maybe it would have been better if they had sent up researchers that the news shows use, rather than the talking heads.
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