n. A young and inexperienced critic or commentator.
1999
Washingtonians still cling to their notions of power, even as the city's importance is draining away. Instead of great cold war statesmen, we have Clinton, Gingrich, Hastert and Carville. Instead of Walter Lippmann, we have 20-something punditeers on MSNBC.
1989 (earliest)
On PBS' MacNeil/Lehrer Show, Secretary of State James Baker explains that there wasn't "anybody, anywhere" who foresaw the fall of the Berlin Wall.
On the op-ed page of Sunday's New York Times, Eric Alterman, who is writing a book on Washington pundits, observes that "not one of America's foreign policy gurus" predicted the East Germans would tear down the Berlin Wall.
The words of the secretary and the punditeer naturally lead a columnist to heed the call of a third authority, New York sportscaster Warner Wolf, who is forever saying: "Let's go to the video tape." Well, I did. And there on Cable News Network's "Closing Arguments 1988" year-end showcase for punditry, I saw Pat Buchanan, Bob Novak, Rowland Evans, Tom Braden and Bernard Shaw listening in rapt attention to this one pundit. "Internationally, the Berlin Wall will come down in 1989," said Martin Schram on that CNN show last December. "Write it down. It will happen."
On the op-ed page of Sunday's New York Times, Eric Alterman, who is writing a book on Washington pundits, observes that "not one of America's foreign policy gurus" predicted the East Germans would tear down the Berlin Wall.
The words of the secretary and the punditeer naturally lead a columnist to heed the call of a third authority, New York sportscaster Warner Wolf, who is forever saying: "Let's go to the video tape." Well, I did. And there on Cable News Network's "Closing Arguments 1988" year-end showcase for punditry, I saw Pat Buchanan, Bob Novak, Rowland Evans, Tom Braden and Bernard Shaw listening in rapt attention to this one pundit. "Internationally, the Berlin Wall will come down in 1989," said Martin Schram on that CNN show last December. "Write it down. It will happen."
The origin of this word is obscure, but it's most likely a blend of pundit and mouseketeer.