Republicans dominated 11-2 in MSNBC's State of the Union coverage
Written by Gabe Wildau, Nicole Casta & Andrew Seifter
Published
Republican officials and conservative pundits far outnumbered Democrats and progressives on MSNBC's February 2 coverage following President Bush's State of the Union address and the Democratic response. MSNBC featured five Republicans and conservatives compared to only one progressive. By comparison, FOX News featured eight Republicans and conservatives and six Democrats and progressives, while CNN presented six pundits or officials from each side of the political spectrum.
Combined with a six-to-one Republican to Democrat ratio on the February 2 edition of Hardball before the speech -- which Media Matters for America documented -- MSNBC's State of the Union coverage from 7 p.m. to midnight ET featured eleven conservatives and Republicans and only two progressives. No Democratic officials, aside from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in the Democratic response, appeared on MSNBC during the entire five-hour period.
| Post-State of the Union address and Democratic response cable coverage 10:30 p.m.-midnight ET |
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| Republicans and conservatives | Democrats and progressives | |
| MSNBC | Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) | MSNBC political analyst Ron Reagan |
| Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) | ||
| Former Bush speechwriter David Frum | ||
| MSNBC host and Former Representative Joe Scarborough (R-FL) | ||
| MSNBC analyst and former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan | ||
| FOX News | Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) | Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) |
| Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH) | Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) | |
| Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman | Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) | |
| Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes | National Public Radio (NPR) senior correspondent and FOX News contributor Juan Williams | |
| Weekly Standard editor William Kristol | Former Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton | |
| Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer | FOX News host Alan Colmes | |
| Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich | ||
| FOX News host Sean Hannity | ||
| CNN | Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) | Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) |
| Senator John McCain (R-AZ) | Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) | |
| Senator John Warner (R-VA) | Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) | |
| Rep. Christopher Cox (R-CA) | Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) | |
| CNN analyst and former Bush administration official Victoria Clarke | CNN host Paul Begala | |
| Blogger and commentator Andrew Sullivan* | Blogger and commentator Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette) | |
*As Media Matters has previously noted, Sullivan is a conservative who supported Senator John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election as “the lesser of two risks.”