Sunday Talk Shows

Steve Benen explains:

I especially loved the "Exclusive!" with the exclamation point, as if this were a rare, special occurrence.

For those keeping score at home, as of this weekend, there will have been 47 Sundays since President Obama's inauguration in January. With this 16th appearance on a Sunday morning talk show this week, John McCain will have been a guest on one of the programs every 2.9 weeks. No other official in the country has been sought out by bookers this often.

Since the president took office, McCain has been on "This Week" three times (September 27, August 23, and May 10), "Fox News Sunday" three times (July 2, March 8, and January 25), CNN's "State of the Union" three times (October 11, August 2, and February 15), and "Face the Nation" four times (October 25, August 30, April 26, and February 8). His appearance on "Meet the Press" this weekend will be his third (December 6, July 12, and March 29).

This pattern should really be troubling to the GOP, especially the more conservative end of the party. The Sunday talking heads act as though McCain is the defacto mouth piece for the party, and he clearly isn’t. On top of that, this love of McCain is probably a big factor in the decline of viewership when it comes to Sunday talk shows. It’s old and stale, much like McCain himself.

As Obama makes his rounds on the Sunday shows this morning, one network didn’t get any face time with the President – FOX News. Chris Wallace seems to be really hurt over this and went as far as to call the President a “crybaby”:

Of course reality seems to leave FOX once again. The President has limited time, and why should he spend it on a network that will just edit and twist everything he says into a lie? Perhaps if FOX would become say “fair and balanced” then they might get some face time with POTUS.

You would never guess that if you went on the Sunday talk shows lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — Retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, the president's national security adviser; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" — Former Vice President Dick Cheney.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai; Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

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CNN's "State of the Union" — Gen. David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command; Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Bob Casey, D-Pa.

Kind of gives you a nostalgic Bush-era feeling, doesn’t it? Oh wait – that isn’t nostalgia, that’s nausea.

Yup tomorrow morning is lining up to be a day of right wing talking heads:

ABC's "This Week" — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" — Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.; Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La.; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.; Shelby; T. Boone Pickens, chairman of the energy investment fund BP Capital.

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CNN's "Late Edition" — Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez; Reps. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; Ted Turner, CNN founder and author of a new memoir.

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"Fox News Sunday" — Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.; Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn.; former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, R-Md.

I see four Democrats and eight Republicans. That’s your liberal media in action!

Here it is:

ABC's "This Week" - Howard Wolfson, campaign adviser for Hillary Rodham Clinton, and David Axelrod, campaign adviser for Barack Obama.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" - Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M.; Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Evan Bayh, D-Ind.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" - Republican strategists Mary Matalin and Mike Murphy; Democratic strategists James Carville and Bob Shrum.

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CNN's "Late Edition" - NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer; Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean; Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Reps. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, and Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

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So Russert has that "Democratic strategist" Carville on again. Will he make note that Carville is a Clinton surrogate, or just let him ramble on without full disclosure?

There was a lot of discussion about the CNN/YouTube Democratic debate on the talk shows yesterday, but there was no mention of the stalled Republican debate? Why don't the Sunday talking heads want people to know the Republicans are to chicken to take questions from the people? They sure talked it up when the Democrats refused to debate on Fox, the media arm of the Bush administration, but I guess it is ok that the Republicans won't take question from the very people they want to serve.

I ask again - if people like Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney can't face the American people then how can they face the terrorists? These are cowards through and through.