Early TV newscasts consisted largely of "talking heads"—a reporter reading news bulletins or interviewing prominent politicians—but maps were frequently employed as visual aids, particularly for war news.

We've seen the respect once reserved for serious thinkers transferred to talking-head experts, skilled at reducing their messages to thirty-second sound bites.

But Theodore Lowi is not a talking head leveling vitriol against the political system to make money. He is a thinker making a powerful, well-reasoned argument that resonates even with his critics, though sometimes the prose style is a little dense.

Talking head

Meaning

Noun