The End of the Talk-Show Gentleman?

When Larry King hangs up his suspenders, his retirement will mark not only the conclusion of his landmark career at CNN, but as The Washington Post’s Tom Shales argues, the end of the even-tempered gentleman on television talk shows. Shales eulogizes King's unique character and his show as "an increasingly lonely outpost of humane civility in a mephitic menagerie of hotheads, saber rattlers, cretins and crackpots." Among them, he seems to fear, will be King’s successor—Piers Morgan—whom he calls “snitty” and “the poor man’s David Frost,” doubting that he’ll be as “nice” as his predecessor. Shales also calls out CNN execs for their "quixotic" booking of guests, and alleges that the network is focused on moving away from the news in general. And he predicts that the next incarnation of the show will exhibit the "carping, contentious talk that thrives on competitors Fox News and MSNBC."