I guess it’s a good thing that the New York Times (6/9/13) had a piece on Sunday that was about media criticism. But it could have–and should have–said more than it did.
In “On the Sunday Morning Talkshows, a Rather Familiar Cast of Characters,” Jennifer Steinhauer describes the ubiquity of a few Republican lawmakers on the Sunday morning chat shows–especially Sen. John McCain. Indeed, it’s practically a surprise when McCain isn’t on one of the shows on a given Sunday.
To the shows he remains something of a catch:
When it comes to a dream guest, program hosts say, Mr. McCain checks almost every box: a senior Republican senator who can speak authoritatively and contemporaneously on many issues, flies secretly to Syria, compares members of his own party to deranged fowl and yet is a reliable opponent of most Obama administration policies.
Steinhauer is right on point with this observation: “The prominence of guests with strong points of view can give viewers a false sense of proportion to certain sides of policy debates.” That’s certainly the case–and more often than not, because of the hawkish, right-leaning guest lists, the voices that are excluded from the Sunday shows tend to be left-leaning and not so hawkish. The show hosts and producers offer up the usual excuses about needing to book the most important newsmakers.
That’s the first, and perhaps biggest, problem with this story. If you look at research on the Sunday show guestlists, you begin to realize that, from the interview segments to the roundtable “debates,” these shows are uniformly and dramatically tilted to the right. FAIR’s most recent survey (Extra!, 4/12), which looked at eight months of shows (6/11-2/12), found that 70 percent of one-on-one interview guests were Republicans. Men were 86 percent of those guests, and 92 percent of the guests were white.
The roundtable debates weren’t much different. Republicans and/or conservatives made up 282 appearances, compared with 164 appearances by Democrats and progressives. The liberal watchdog group Media Matters (2/14/06) found a similar right-wing tilt when it looked at eight years of Sunday shows.
Indeed, the remarkable thing about the Sunday shows is not that they have the same guests over and over–it’s that they have the same Republican and conservative guests over and over. That would be tough, and entirely valid, criticism; instead, the Times gives a quote to middle-of-the-road CNN pundit David Gergen, who argues that the problem with the show is that they “look more toward partisan polarization…. They seek out people who are further out on the spectrum.”
That’s a familiar cry among centrist pundits. But is it true? Not really. FAIR looked at this issue (Extra!, 9/10) by using the VoteView, a mathematical model for sorting elected officials from left to right according to their votes. FAIR assigned lawmakers a Vote View-derived score, and then looked at the lawmakers invited on the Sunday shows. All but one show (Face the Nation) leaned to the right; and the Republicans who appeared on the shows were notably more conservative than the Democrats were liberal/progressive:
Lawmakers in the most right-wing 10 percent appeared 51 times, while those in the leftmost 10th appeared 35 times. The difference was even more stark further to the extremes: Guests with scores of 96 to 100 appeared more than twice as often as their progressive counterparts, 41 times to 20.
So the shows lean Republican/conservative by nearly every measure–and the Republicans they feature tend to be more conservative than the other members of their party. That’s the real story of how the Sunday shows operate. A good question might be why they have this obvious tilt. It can’t just be that John McCain is especially telegenic.
Perhaps when the choice is between Tea Party and (what used to be) mainstream Republicans, any Democrat looks to be on the left. Yet most Democrats are far from the left, which commentaries such as this should never forget. Does the number of leftists on these shows ever exceed zero?
Excellent analysis, but this state of affairs should not surprise anyone. The msm serves its corporate masters who, I expect, are conservative. One only has to read Chris Hedges’ brilliant “Death of the Liberal Class” to realize that the left has been systematically disenfranchised, with certain exceptions (FDR/JFK) for the past 100 years. So it is no wonder that the msm doesn’t book leftists, they’re an endangered species. And, given the usurpation of the GOP by the right wing fringe, the Dems have to position themselves in the middle or just right of center just to remain viable.
My friend and I just had the conversation about the Sunday talk shows. It’s become the McCain-Graham-Schumer-Feinstein morning show, with stupid Rand Paul, Rubio, and all the other right-wing nuts….BOY, DO I MISS TIM RUSSERT!
Peter, you rock.
And when freaking JOHN BOEHNER personally posts on your blog you KNOW you have arrived.
I think it goes like this, the Defense & Oil Industries sponsor the news. Who else is better than to have two war nuts that they own on as guest promoting their love of war and blood thirty views than John McCain?
Problem with Liberals on TV is that they stand for nothing. What principles are Democrats for? Are they against the war? No not really! Are they against world trade? No! Are they for gay rights? They weren’t up until a little while ago, but now that the momentum is with Gay rights movement, democrats are climbing on. You could say that democrats are for “health care reform” but that is not a principle but rather a law modeled by one Mitt Romney passed in Massachusetts. Are democrats against guns? No! They talk about restrictoins on guns but are not openly against them. Abortion is the only issue that I can say Democrats own.
True leftist like Denis Kucinis and Norman Finkelstein who would openly criticise Israel will never see the inside of a TV studio. So when there is a choice between democrats that stand for nothing and Republicans with strong principles, Republicans will be more atractive guests.
McCain is actually a principled politician. This is why McCain is likeable. The only person on the Democratic side that may come close in terms of being true to her principles may be Elizabeth Warren, but she is too new and we are yet to see what she is really all about.
I totally agree that while most all of the press leans left……most of these shows and good talk radio leans right.And there is a reason for it.left leaning views are damn hard to defend ,and just as hard to articulate.Look at Obama care.Remember Pelosi saying we will understand it AFTER we pass it.It sounded to anybodies ear (with half a brain)as if it would cost much more than promised.It sounded like premiums would skyrocket and competition fly out the window.It sounded like it would lead toward a single payer system.But only masters like Obama who practiced slight of hand and a few others were able to con(i mean convince) that these things would not happen.So I feel for the left.How do you convince a weary public that spending,printing,and borrowing till you have a national dept of unfunded liabilities of 172 trillion(just released by Obamas economic board) that we are on the right track?Answer….you dont.You legislate in the dark.Twisting arms and threatening like the frigging mob.
A michael e comment = “blah blah blah blah. BLAH. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. . .”
I say let’s ban conservative commentators from these boards, starting with Mr e because . . . wait for it . . . their “views are damn hard to defend, and just as hard to articulate.”
Francis I dont know if you are a Dem or a liberal or what.I do know you can clearly see Obama and his administration have been a nightmare for this country.A culture of corruption, with every day a new eruption.IF he correctly articulates any of you views…….then you have gone down with the ship along with this amateur.
I know this is hard for you to grasp, but it’s possible to condemn and not like both Persident Obama and John Boehner and the Right. At the same time. And accurately be called a leftist.
Tim you are 100% right.BUT…….come hell or high water they would all still vote FOR Obama.No matter what he says.No matter what he does.Foolish Rs actually thought McCain would get a percentage of the ” leftist” vote because well -don’t you know those on the other side of the isle like him.BULLSHIT!!!!How did that work out for him?This is plain and simply a war of ideologies.Those progressives who believe in an all powerful state that has the power to do whatever they please.And those of us who strive to limit those powers as enumerated in the constitution.From what I have witnessed during obamas tenur progressives will overlook any fault…any illegality…..and unconstitutional act to gain that power.You yourself Tim said you applaud what the IRS did………BECAUSE it was against those you disagree with.That IS Chicago thug politics in a nut shell.So you want me to see open mindedness on your side?What a joke.Your idea of the two sides negotiating is the tea party types seeing the wisdom in the lefts antics.If they don’t….. more personal attacks and any other act you can dream up.Want to join a side that really is hated by both sides because they have actual principles/We will leave a light on for you.
PS….Check out the tea parties claims to what an Obama presidency would do for this country,before he took power.WE WERE RIGHT.About everything