From July 04: Robert Thompson, quotemaster

Also from a year ago: The Boston Globe noted the rising influence of TV and pop culture guru Robert Thompson, the Syracuse University professor who has for some time been the source of first choice for journalists looking for a good quote about the power of US media culture. As Temple University's Mass Media & Communication Digest noted, Thompson's "big-picture, what-does-it-all-mean comments pop up daily in national newspapers, TV shows, and radio programs. Ask him about anything that appears on the tube or bubbles up in pop culture, from the crackdown on televised indecency after Janet Jackson's flashy Super Bowl halftime performance to the idea that terrorists invade US homes via TV newscasts, and he delivers a witty answer packed with insight."

Thompson is an expert on his subject matter, and "teaches the only class on pop culture at the Center for the Study of Popular Television, which he founded seven years ago at Syracuse University." He has also co-authored a book on the subject, Television in the Antenna Age, "which looks at how television as an industry, art, and technology influences our lives." The book was published last December.