Driftglass Invokes the Spirit of Mike Royko

...to, um, educate a Chicago public-television presenter on the finer points of background research and point-making:

I’m just some poor, civilian goof who can recognize a plague when it's at his door, who is sick of watching paid teevee journalism die of spine-rot, and who does this in his spare time. And yet even I – with about 30 minutes of clicking a fucking mouse on my wheezing, old laptop – was able to find out all sorts of fascinating stuff about your skeevy guests and their mendacious claims that were, for some reason, utterly beyond the collective ability of the mighty WTTW to ferret out.

People without exposure to literature published later than 1970 (or with religious or moral strictures equivalent) might find the language Drifty uses to be a trifle strong.