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
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.”