On this week’s five Sunday news shows (CNN’s State of the Union, ABC’s This Week, NBC’s Meet the Press, CBS’ Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday) almost all of the guests that were brought on for interviews were white Republican males. When the AP released the Sunday show guest lineups on Saturday, of the 15 guest slots, only three were filled by Democrats, two of whom are minorities and only one being a woman. However, when the shows were actually broadcast, all three Democrats were relegated to panels. Face the Nation did book another Democrat, former National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, for an interview. Bob Schieffer also had on attorneys David Boies and Ted Olson to discuss their book. Boies is a known Democrat while Olson worked with President George W. Bush.
Outside of those two exceptions, the rest of the guests featured on Sunday’s shows are all white Republican men. On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace interviewed Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), who made the most appearances on Sunday shows in 2013 and is on pace to be 2014’s top guest, Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) and Rep. Tom Price (R-GA). OVer on NBC, the majority of the program was dedicated to an interview with the loser of the 2012 Presidential election, Mitt Romney. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) was listed as a featured guest, but he was instead part of a panel discussion.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Meanwhile, over on CNN, Dana Bash, filling in for Candy Crowley, interviewed Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), like Rogers, a constant fixture on Sunday shows, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), who lost to Tea Party challenger David Brat in Tuesday’s Republican primary. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) was listed as a guest by the AP, but ended up being part of a panel. ABC’s This Week also had Cantor on, along with Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX). The show was also hosted by Republican toad Jonathan Karl, rather than normal host George Stephanopoulos Meanwhile, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), another person listed as a guest by the AP, was merely part of the panel. CBS, besides the guests listed above, also featured interviews with Graham and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.
Now, I will hand it to the producers of these shows that Cantor’s loss was a major story this past week, so if you were able to get Cantor on, you had to go for it. Also, if you couldn’t get Cantor, you’d likely want to bring on a Republican strategist or leader, such as Priebus. However, the Cantor loss was only one of two major news stories this past week. The other one was the flare up of violence in Iraq. On this end, it seemed that the shows’ producers and hosts were more than satisfied with only providing the Republican point of view on this issue. And, as we all know, the GOP view on anything is, “Blame Obama!”
The mainstream news media in America should be embarrassed by this display. Not one minority or woman was featured in an interview. Two Democrats, Donilon and Boies, did get interviewed by Schieffer. However, Boies was part of a tandem discussing a book he co-wrote and Donlion is a former Obama Administration member. None of the shows featured anyone from the current administration, which you think should be a priority if you are talking about this President’s plans regarding Iraq. Instead, we got tired old retreads like Rogers and Graham, who seem to only exist to appear on news shows and complain about POTUS. What we saw on Sunday was a sad display of corporate media providing opinions and commentary for one very specific group of people — white Republican men.
Message to the oligarchs running our news media: The demographics of this country aren’t restricted to 50+ year old conservative Caucasian males. If your idea of diversity of opinion is to mix in a couple of old white Democrats, then you’re doing it wrong.
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
