ted koppel, I've watch nightline for over 20 years and you only disappointed me once, you were going to report on the Pope when he went to Cuba but then President Clinton's scandel broke but thank you for all those years but now nightline is like watching the evening news, what a shame, you did a great job and I will miss you and your nightline, I guess I'll just go to bed early now. yours truly Leo J. Sedillos!hope to hear from you!

Do you know anyone that cares?

He means uber influential as in liberal leaning columnists ...all three have very far left leaning opinions. The only person with any semblance of moderation is Thomas Friedman.

They're *not* influential? It's like with Howard Stern; even the people who hate them quote them, just to refute what they say point-by-point. I would say the same thing about Robert Novak, Charles Krauthammer, and -- as the comments here have shown -- Bill O'Reilly (who is on TV, yes, but has a newspaper column, as well).

I guess I never knew what uber meant if that crew is uber-influential. Wow.

How many people joined their TimesSelect that weren't doing it for the laughs, anyway? And you forgot the most uber-intelligent of them all, uber-economist Paul Krugman.

'He joins the ber-influential family of Times columnists that include Maureen Dowd, Thomas Friedman, and Frank Rich'

They forgot to add Joel Keller to that list. :)