the hoarse whisperer nails it! (and kirstie alley is an idiot!)

[zipplewrath]

9. This implies the democrats control the conversation

Especially in this day and age, democrats rarely control the conversation. It is hard to trivialize or sideline a speaker when you are both guests in the conversation. And when you try, you are as likely come off as some sort of condescending elitist. One can try to avoid much of this by avoiding participation in events that will include unqualified participants. But often in an interview or in participation in panels, the moderator will bring in statements from outside. The best I can think of for that is something to the effect of, "well people with expertise on the subject would know what's wrong with that statement, but this format doesn't really allow for me to teach a short course on the subject".

I worked in a technical field. We'd have staff meetings where technical issues were discussed along side with business issues. So there were nontechnical people in the room. In an effort to be helpful, the nontechnical people would make suggestions or asked questions that were so wrong, often the technical people would chuckle. I took to just saying something to the effect that I'd explain it to them later.

But in a political setting, I'm not sure how one can do a whole lot about it. I do wish the media would be more circumspect about inviting unqualified speakers into discussions.