Liberal Atlantic blogger Matt Yglesias once offered these tough words to FOX News — and to those who appear on the network’s programs:

…[I]ndeed, progressives have every reason to want the opportunity to present their arguments in a persuasive manner to the Fox News audience. The problem, though, is that this can’t be done because Fox News is run by the people who run Fox News. As I well recall from my appearances on the Hugh Hewitt showing, appearing on hack-controlled media outlets is not an effective method of persuading the audience. The rules are rigged. A debate organized and run by a Republican Party propaganda outlet is not, in practice, going to provide the opportunity for Democrats to persuade Fox-loving conservatives anymore than appearing on Hannity and Colmes contributes to the creation of a balanced and vigorous public sphere. Television is especially tricky for providing the illusion of unmediated reality while, in fact, allowing a thousand different kinds of mediation. Thinking that you can beat television professionals whose job is to make you look bad on a television network that they control is just hubris. Nobody’s that smart. Nobody’s that clever. Nobody beats the producers.

And, yet, there Yglesias was today on FOX News, chatting amiably about Mike Huckabee’s presidential bid. Have the producers gotten better? Or did Yglesias change his mind once his bosses at the Atlantic told him to get his butt on TV to help promote the magazine?

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We’d have posted this earlier when our tipster first told us about this, but we tried to get 23-year-old Ezra Klein to comment on the issue. He wouldn’t, but apparently he’s telling others that it’s a joke. The question remains: Is it a good enough joke for NBC to keep paying him to appear on Tim Russert’s network as a political pundit?

Also! What are he and Matthew Yglesias plotting, kids?

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Big Head DC just received this exclusive picture of three of Washington’s youngest, most ambitious political pundits (who like nothing more than to hear themselves talk) participating in one of their daily top-secret Web chat sessions. We’ve been told that the lads regularly strap on their earpieces and yank out their microphones to plot sinister ways they could one day lead various Washington print media outlets, including The Atlantic, The American Prospect and Reason magazine.

During such sessions, the boys often enjoy repeating anecdotes or mimicking blather they’ve heard older people around them say. Which is why, if you’ve heard Ezra (the regular middle in the threesome, for some reason) talking anytime lately, he’s taken to relentlessly referencing Chris Matthews‘ favorite film, Cat Ballou. Or if you’ve seen little Jules, he’s waxed poetically about growing his hair out dramatically like his idol Nick Gillespie. Or if you’ve spotted Matthew Yglesias at a bar or fast food restaurant (or both), you’ve heard him going on and on about the joys of gay sex. (His colleague, Andrew Sullivan, has whispered a lot about that topic in his ear lately, we hear.)

Yes, these guys are swell. If you happen to see them in person (or even in a chat room) during the holidays, be sure to tell them Big Head DC sends them a hearty “Merry Christmas.” And let ‘em know that 2008 is going to be wild!

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Earlier: Matthew Yglesias, What’s Wrong?

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The liberal blogger seems to be phoning it in lately, and many people are asking Big Head DC why. Too little original analysis, they say, and apparently he looks “weird” on BloggingHeads.tv. Please help us figure out just what’s been distracting Matty lately.

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