Insiders reveal television's most hated pundits

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English word pundit is derived from the Sanskrit term pandita, which referred to a class of learned, erudite colonial Indian scholars who advised the British about Indian customs and the specifics of the country's complex legal system.

How things have changed. Today, the word pundit pretty much refers to any one of the preening jackals who host (or appear as a regular guest on) the dozens of shouty cable TV programs from which we ostensibly get our "news."

"The cable punditry business is an echo chamber in which experience, talent, and knowledge are all secondary to how loud you can yell," says Chez Pazienza, a former producer at CNN's American Morning. "And the louder and more obnoxious you are, the longer your half-life in the chamber is."

In an industry that places a premium on big personalities, then, it's no surprise that many of the men (and women, but mostly men) at the top of the heap rub their colleagues the wrong way. "Most people in cable news are assholes," says Tucker Carlson, the former host of CNN's Crossfire. "If they're not assholes, they have dysfunctional sex lives. But they're usually assholes."

Of course, some cantankerous behavior is to be expected—it's a deadline-driven, high-stress field in which subordinates and talent alike routinely plow through 16-hour days purely on a temporary adrenaline-and-caffeine high. "The medium itself is so bad. It just brings out the worst in people," says Carlson. "People are constantly on edge. There's a real rawness of emotion present in even the most basic of human interactions."

While the foundation-caked network faces typically smile away when the cameras are rolling, the lead-up more often closely resembles a hostage negotiation gone awry than a professional working environment. "Everyone is exhausted and has ADD. People yell and tempers fly. It can create an unfair representation of someone's true persona," says Pazienza. "That being said, there are a lot of genuine jerks."

Which raises the obvious question: Who are the most hated news personalities of all? Not hated for their ideological viewpoints, mind you—we're talking about the people who are plainly and wholly disliked by their colleagues and overworked staffs. (Note: so many people suggested barely-relevant conservative stick figure Ann Coulter that we figured we'd mention her here and just move on.) To separate the mildly unpopular from the legitimately detested, we polled a number of current and former producers—the people with the best view of the tantrums and shouting matches—as well as some professional TV reporters and had them dish the dirt. In the interest of being fair and balanced, we also asked for the pundits who are popular and well-liked in their newsrooms.

KEITH OLBERMANN
Host, MSNBC's Countdown With Keith Olbermann
In a recent profile of Olbermann in the New Yorker, Peter Boyle recalls that he could be so "overbearing" that Suzy Kolber, a former colleague of his at ESPN, would sometimes "lock herself in the bathroom and cry." It's a sentiment that people who know him today echo. "I love his politics, and think he's really filled a void for the left that was missing on TV, but the guy is just a total asshole," says a former colleague of the frequent Page Six target. "He's just a full-blown, red-in-the-face screamer." Another former MSNBC staffer notes that Olbermann refused to communicate with underlings face to face when he worked out of the network's Secaucus operation, instead insisting that anyone who wished to get in touch with him leave him a note in a special mailbox. "His disregard for those beneath him is almost comical," the staffer continues. "I remember he had an assistant back then named Brian whom he made go out and buy presents for other people. Brian did, with his own money, and of course Keith never reimbursed him." Says an NBC producer who has worked with him: "He is, to put it kindly, brusque."

LAURA INGRAHAM
Frequent Fox News guest
"I've worked on a half-dozen programs at three different networks, and Laura was by far the most difficult person I encountered," moans a former producer of her short-lived MSNBC program, Watch It! "Which is unfortunate, 'cause she's actually pretty smart." Evidence of just how difficult working with Ingraham can be was made public last week, after a 10-minute video of her chastising her staff not to "come in my ear" and ranting about a mysterious Mexican person was released on the Internet. (Watch it above.) "What you see in that video was pretty typical of her interactions with her staff," says a P.A. on the O'Reilly Factor, where Ingraham routinely stops by to bloviate. "Part of the problem is that she's very tough on herself, so when she doesn't understand something, or, say, sees something wrong on the prompter, she flips out," says the former producer. "You knew to just keep your head down leading up to commercials. Producing her was more an exercise in trying to walk her down off the edge." Not that anyone has to worry about doing that for the time being: Just In, her new show on Fox News, was canceled after just three weeks.

BILL O'REILLY
Host, The O'Reilly Factor
O'Reilly, like his favorite sparring partner Olbermann, has a penchant for staff abuse and throwing temper tantrums—only he's suffered the misfortune of having his verbal meltdown captured on tape. "Bluster on camera, blustery off camera—just what you'd expect," says a longtime TV newspaper reporter who has dealt with O'Reilly on numerous occasions. An on-air personality at a rival network confirms that O'Reilly's trademark hubris isn't just a manufactured ratings grab: "He actually makes subordinates refer to him as 'The Big Guy.' In earnest." While O'Reilly has a tight-knit team of producers who are all loyal to him, he's proven less adept at making friends on the clubby TV social circuit. (Other than Andrea Mackris, of course.) "Every time I see Bill at a cocktail party, he's standing by himself," laughs our source. "It almost makes you feel bad for the guy." Almost.

NANCY GRACE
Host, CNN's Nancy Grace
The bumbling former prosecutor's shrill Southern accent and "string 'em up" attitude toward those who haven't even been given due process (see: the "guilty" Duke lacrosse team) doesn't just grate on viewers. "She has a huge diva complex," complains a coworker at CNN. "Everything is always about Nancy." Then again, that's not an especially astounding revelation when you recall that the 48-year-old embellished the murder of her former fiancé to give her TV shtick some stick. Grace has supposedly mellowed out since giving birth to twins in November 2007, but her ego for the most part has remained intact. "Once she gets in makeup chair, she thinks she's a total goddess," laughs a former P.A. at CNN who has since moved on. "We used to joke that the only reason she'd come into the studio was to get her hair done. She wears so much lip gloss that it's amazing she can even open her mouth."

CHRIS MATTHEWS
Host, MSNBC's Hardball
Matthews got his comeuppance in April's devastating New York Times Magazine profile of him, though associates, past and present, can't resist piling on. "His boorishness is borne out of a deep-seated insecurity, and everyone knows it," groans a producer at MSNBC. "You kind of just have to put up and deal and let him do his thing." Another former MSNBC colleague takes umbrage with his professional demeanor: "He's always running around the office with M&Ms and his diabetes medication stuffed in his blazer, amped up on sugar. He's totally self-centered and has absolutely no self-control." And his penchant for sexism—most evident in his manhandling of Hillary Clinton's campaign for the presidency, but present almost every time a comely female makes an appearance on his show—is confirmed by the lady guests who have dared pay his studio a visit. "He's always got that one slot for a chick—I call it the 'vagina stool' now," laughs one frequent female guest. "And it's like he just tries to make whoever is on the vagina stool squirm. If he reads you as heterosexual and attractive, it's really uncomfortable. You really have to be ready for anything."

(For the record, a colleague insisted that we mention the following moderate defense of Matthews: "Yes, he can be a shallow, nasty person. But he's also kind of big-hearted in a way. If you can get past the exterior—and a lot of people clearly can't—you'll find a warmth of personality that mostly goes unnoticed.")

BRIT HUME
Host, Special Report With Brit Hume
Hume, who will step down as host of Special Report after the election, but will stay on as managing editor of Fox News, has a reputation for being the most understated personality on a roster stuffed with loudmouths. Unfortunately, to many in the industry, his quiet patina masks a nasty streak. "He drips with sarcasm and self-importance," claims a former senior producer at Larry King Live who dealt with Hume in the past. "He used to be a class act, but he got toxic real fast after drinking too much of the Fox Kool-Aid." And while Hume is a model of restraint on air (some might call him smug), frequent outbursts behind the scenes have done little to endear him to his younger staffers. "There was one meeting a few years back when he got so pissed off he threw a full carton of orange juice across the room," says a onetime researcher who is now out of the business altogether. "He can be incredibly snippy and dismissive if you don't do things his way."

RACHEL MADDOW
Frequent MSNBC guest
Maddow, a Rhodes Scholar, has been a frequent stand-in for Keith Olbermann on Countdown of late—a change that's been met with open arms. "She's a lot more pleasant to work with than Keith, I'll tell you that much," says a current Olbermann staffer. Network brass seem to be taking note—she soon may have her own show. "She's funny, smart, hard-working, entertaining, and has no ego," continues the staffer. "How rare a combination is that?" Even a female producer at CNN, where Maddow made frequent appearances before signing an exclusive contract with MSNBC, is impressed. "Rachel's really, I just love her," she says. "Maybe if something has come of Hillary Clinton's run, it's that a woman in a male-dominated industry can be taken a little bit more fucking seriously."

DAVID GREGORY
Host, MSNBC's Race for the White House
"David Gregory: He can be an aggressive asshole, but David is hands down one of the funniest guys I've ever worked with, other than Brian Williams," says a former colleague at NBC. "He can do impersonations of anyone. And they're spot-on—he does a great Brian Williams, actually."

ROBERT NOVAK
Conservative columnist,
Self-described "Prince of Darkness"
Menacing nickname aside, people who have worked with Novak claim the Valerie Plame outer is actually a good guy. "He sometimes looks like he's going to cut your jugular when he's on TV, but he could not be kinder or more gentler," raves a CNN staffer who has coordinated a handful of his appearances. "He's even really nice to the interns. An all-around really nice man."

SEAN HANNITY
Cohost, Fox's Hannity & Colmes
"Here's the weird thing about Sean: He's not a dick in real life," jokes a colleague from rival MSNBC. "You wouldn't think it based on how he can come across on TV, but most people actually like him." Well, most people except Barack Obama.