Congress Challenges Network Execs: Bring Balance to Sunday Shows
Reps. Hinchey, Woolsey, Kaptur, and Baldwin Write Executive Producers of Influential Sunday Morning Talk Shows Seeking More Balanced Lineup of Guests
Report is available online
at www.SundayShowReport.com.
Washington, DC - Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) have formally asks the executive producers of ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, NBC's Meet the Press, and Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday to end the conservative domination of the Sunday morning talk shows.
Their letter follows a comprehensive study recently released by Media Matters for America, titled "If It's Sunday, it's Still Conservative," which uses empirical data to demonstrate that the networks have largely provided a significant advantage to Republican and conservative voices on their prominent Sunday shows.
Reps. Hinchey, Woolsey, Kaptur, and Baldwin called for the NBC and CBS to end the lopsided conservative advantage on Meet the Press and Face the Nation, which has continued despite the Democratic victory in the 2006 midterm election, as documented by Media Matters.
The complete text of the letter is included below.
Selected excerpts from the letter:
"On the whole, the results suggest that the networks are failing to provide their viewers with the balance and range of opinion that they deserve."
"Consistently booking Republicans and conservatives in higher numbers than Democrats and progressives gives the public a skewed and imbalanced perception of the national discourse."
"Democratic and progressive Americans are being denied the right to have their points of view adequately represented in this important weekly forum."
"The networks need to actively address this problem, and safeguard against its recurrence, or risk diminishing their respected position in the American political landscape."
In their letter, Reps. Hinchey, Woolsey, Kaptur, and Baldwin assert that the networks' failure to amend their booking practices in favor of a more balanced and equitable debate, would "risk diminishing their respective position in the American political landscape."
The complete text of the letter is included below:
March 13, 2007
Ms. Betsy Fischer, Executive Producer
NBC News
Meet
the Press
4001
Nebraska Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20016-2733
Ms.
Carin Pratt, Executive Producer
CBS
News
Face
the Nation
2020 M Street NW
Washington, D.C.
20036-3304
Ms. Katherine O'Hearn, Executive Producer
ABC News
This
Week with George Stephanopoulos
1717
Desales Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20036-4401
Mr.
Marty Ryan, Executive Producer
Fox
Broadcasting Co.
Fox
News Sunday
400 North Capitol Street, #550
Washington, D.C.
20001-1502
Dear Ms. Fischer, Ms. Pratt, Ms. O'Hearn, and Mr. Ryan:
We write to call your attention to a recent study by Media Matters for America analyzing the guest lineups of the influential Sunday morning talk shows. The study, titled "If It's Sunday, it's Still Conservative," documents the continued dominance of Republican and conservative voices on these important network broadcasts.
Media Matters analyzed ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, NBC's Meet the Press, and Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, classifying each of the more than 2,000 guests in 2005 and 2006, as well as the guests since the 2006 midterm elections by party and/or ideology. On the whole, the results suggest that the networks are failing to provide their viewers with the balance and range of opinion that they deserve. Consider the report's key findings:
- During the 109th Congress, Republicans and conservatives held the advantage on every show, in every category measured. All four shows interviewed more Republicans and conservatives than Democrats and progressives overall, interviewed more Republican elected and administration officials than Democratic officials, hosted more conservative journalists than progressive journalists, held more panels that tilted right than tilted left, and gave more solo interviews to Republicans and conservatives.
- Despite previous network claims that a conservative advantage existed on the Sunday shows simply because Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, only one show, ABC's This Week, has been equally balanced between both sides overall since the congressional majority switched hands in the 2006 midterm elections.
- In fact, since the 2006 midterm elections, NBC's Meet the Press and CBS' Face the Nation have provided less balance between Republican and Democratic officials than Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox New Sunday despite the fact that Fox News Sunday remains the most unbalanced broadcast overall both before and after the election.
We recognize that the Sunday shows occupy a singular place in our political culture. They serve as weekly "town hall" meetings where millions of Americans learn what is happening in their nation's capitol. The terms of national debate is often set, and conventional wisdom is often formed, by these programs.
Consistently booking Republicans and conservatives in higher numbers than Democrats and progressives gives the public a skewed and imbalanced perception of the national discourse. Furthermore, Democratic and progressive Americans are being denied the right to have their points of view adequately represented in this important weekly forum.
While ABC's This Week has improved dramatically since the election, maintaining a rough balance with their guests from the left and right, others have largely failed to follow This Week's example. The networks need to address this problem, or risk diminishing their respected position in the American political landscape.
We hope you will agree that the networks need to actively address this problem, and safeguard against its recurrence, or risk diminishing their respected position in the American political landscape.
Therefore, we respectfully urge you to ensure a more balanced and equitable forum for the national debate, and to consider whether your current booking practices serve the best interests of the American people.
Sincerely,
Maurice D.
Hinchey
Member of
Congress
Tammy Baldwin
Member of Congress
Marcy
Kaptur
Member of
Congress
Lynn Woolsey
Member of Congress
"If It's Sunday, It's Still Conservative" is available online at www.SundayShowReport.com.
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Maybe they (CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, etc.) should consider having some more conservative viewpoints during the REST OF THE WEEK instead of pushing it to the Sunday slot. The smell of bias in the liberal media is so potent, you practically need a gas mask to decipher news from opinion.
You could be right!
After all, Bungle lied steadily thoughout the 2000 campaign, and the media called him out on it - that is why he had to have his daddy's SCOTUS install him in the White House, isn't it? And Al Gore was SO embraced by that liberal media - I can't think of the word "adulation", without picturing the "earth-tones", "lies about Love Canal", "claims to have invented the internet", "has no personality" paeans that were sung to his candidacy. And, of course, there was wall-to-wall coverage of the specious charges levied by the Dems against the sterling procedures in the Florida recounts!
Then, when the Downing Street Memos were unearthed, the constant barrage of headlines, the daily calls for impeachment, the Congressional investigations, the Independent Prosecutor - all the result of that liberal media bias! Meanwhile, the press stood by John Kerry almost as staunchly as they had supported Al Gore - again refusing to promote or even acknowledge, the lonely stand of the Swift-Boat vets who attempted to reveal the ugly, duplicitous - perhaps treasonous - nature of the candidate. There was absolutely no mention in the media of Kerry's constant flip-flopping, his attempted triangulation; nor was it ever pointed out that he had absolutely no experience in quashing funding for terror, during his Senate career. Had it not been for the proved veracity of the Bungle, in four gloriously successful years of leading the nation to greater wealth and stature in the world, why, we fools might have even elected Kerry. But, foiled yet again at the polls, the media could not resist the Dems' claim of voting problems in Ohio, 2004, and played that meme daily across the ensuing six months of headlines, rather than the victory of deserving Bungle.
For the following two years, the leads, the headlines, the editorials, continued to berate Bungle every day about the dire situation in Iraq, never even mentioning assurances from Darth Cheney and Rumsfeld, that we were doing all the right things; never digging for the vast number of ways that we had already made Iraq a better place to live - just tormenting this poor Administration daily with every suspicion that someone had died, and blaming Bungle personally for each death. Whilst torturing Bungle on the front page and in the editorials, the liberal media was also busy building up the field of Dem candidates. Despite Hillary's cold, controlling calculations, and her "witchy" ways, despite her unelectability, never a hint of criticism or even doubt; not even coverage of the 77 times she was caught with her lesbian consort, while Bill was off romping through his "one-nighter" international speaking engagements. She wasn't even blamed when "someone" leaked Obama's "madrassa" background! As for Obama, no media mention of his Muslim forebearers, no coverage of his mixed racial makeup, no disclosure of his total lack of experience, not even any coverage of his profit from sale of property, nor his benefit through stock he owned, from legislation that did not benefit the companies in which he owned stock. John Edwards? If you relied on the media, you would never know that he also sold a house, for a profit; nor that he was once a trial lawyer (and we all know that trial lawyers are the sole reason that everything is so expensive - you know, recruiting deadbeats to falsely claim serious injury from the absolutely safe Corporate products); nor that he was just trounced by Darth in the 2004 debates!
And, of course, the media continue to this day, to interview and promote the Dems, to the utter exclusion of the poor Repugnants actually running things - and if a Repugnant is permitted face time, it is certain to be in a hostile venue, under attack by the media interrogator.
Thanks for the refresher, MMFA!
I had forgotten the dearth of coverage in the liberal media, of Obama's status as a "registered Muslim" - revealed only through the heroic effort of Brit Hume! Not to mention the lack of exposure of his middle name, "Hussein", or the eerie similarity of "Osama" and "Obama". The liberal media remains consistently complicit in covering up these serious and noteworthy aspect of this potential Dem candidate.
Keep the heat on em'
I just listened to the audio clips of Jamison Foser and Paul Waldman on Rachel Maddow, Jay Marvin, etc. They spoke with intelligence and authority.
Great job once again by Media Matters.
I hope Hillary, Edwards and O'Bama are paying attention.