Fox host Van Susteren asks blog readers to gauge her intelligence

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/fox/20100515/vide ... a768.jpg?x =213&y=120&xc=1&yc=1&wc=408&hc=230&q=85&sig=I7Jo2ixERE850auQPXDhbQ-- (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/extern ... 94;_ylu=X3 oDMTE5Z2s2aHBkBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN5bl9yX3RvcF92aWRlbwRz bGsDZ3ZzbGl2ZXdpcmU1/*http://news.yahoo.com/video/opinion-15749653/19846753)

Fri May 28, 6:00 pm ET

For journalists, hate mail comes with the territory. And it can come at any moment, with critics instantly shooting off emails when someone ticks them off on a blog or on the air.

Fox News host Greta Van Susteren has surely received audience complaints before — but a recent email exchange irked her enough to take issue with it on her own blog (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ynews/ ... ian-watch/). And in a move that Fox executives probably would have tried to discourage had they been consulted, Van Susteren also urged her blog readers to weigh in on the central point raised by her correspondent: that she is, well, rather dimly lit.

It all started when Brian of Tahlequah, Okla., told Van Susteren she had a "mind like a seive" (yes, it should be "sieve"). Brian didn't stop there: He also wanted the host to know that her "brain is empty."

"Matter of fact, it is so empty, if you put a pea in your skull it would rattle around like a BB in a boxcar," he wrote.

In her blog post, Van Susteren responded with a few questions — and several question marks. "Why does Brian watch if he thinks I am so stupid?" she wrote. "How stupid is that????"

Perhaps expecting fans to rally around her, Van Susteren polled the audience as to who's dumber: Van Susteren or the guy watching a show he doesn't like. As of this writing, after more than 12,000 votes, the results aren't in the host's favor: 67 percent of respondents say Van Susteren is dumber.

Still, she can probably take comfort in the performance that a Fox colleague, Clayton Morris, turned in on Friday's "Fox and Friends" broadcast. Reading an unrevised cue card in faithful Ron Burgundy (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ynews/ ... tt0357413/) style, Morris twice referred to himself as co-host Steve Doocy (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ynews/ ... 93361.html), at the beginning and end of a segment he was announcing. Perhaps the next poll on Van Susteren's blog will invite readers to pit Morris' intellectual heft against her own.

— Michael Calderone (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_en2308#) is the media writer for Yahoo! News.

Sounds like someone like Brett Hume should have a talk with her, I don't agree with him but about 20% of the time but he is not dumb and she works for him. Maybe I should reconsider Hume?

River

bobover, stay on topic or your posts will be removed...... MacTheWolf

Funny story. I laughed at how naive Greta Van Susteren is about comments on the internet. You can't answer a flame or hate mail or whatever the way she did. Insulting the person who just threw a heaping pile of garbage at you is a losing strategy. Adding a poll asking if you are stupid is REALLY STUPID. It's just way to simple to snark back a yes.

There's only two things that you can do with hate mail or flames like she got -

a) laugh it off,

b) ignore it.

I'm not a fan of Greta Van Susteren, and it doesn't have anything to do with her level of intelligence. She just seems to exemplify the gotcha style of journalism that has displaced investigative reporting and good journalistic practices. In the same breath I would include Nancy Grace and Lou Dobbs ( Thankfully no longer on CNN )

But to keep it on topic....

Greta has never really struck me as being that intelligent.

I personally have never herd her so I have no opinion one way or the other but she does not sound like the sharpest tool in the shed.

River

I liked her well enough before she jumped to Fox from CNN. She has a legal background and those are the stories she can cover the best...to be fair though I don't watch Fox news, so have no idea how good/bad she is on there.

Poor Greta! She has such a neat little crooked smile, if you ever get to see it...

I think that I'd rather screw with Ann Coulter... except that she looks too much like a MAN!