If It's Sunday, It's Conservative: An analysis of the Sunday talk show guests on ABC, CBS, and NBC, 1997 - 2005 Summary: Executive Summary The Sunday-morning talk shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC are where the prevailing opinions are aired and tested, policymakers state their cases, and the left and right in American politics debate the pressing issues of the day on equal ground. Both sides have their say and face probing questions. Or so you would think. In fact, as this study reveals, conservative voices significantly outnumber progressive voices on the Sunday talk shows. Media Matters for America conducted a content analysis of ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, and NBC's Meet the Press, classifying each one of the nearly 7,000 guest appearances during President Bill Clinton's second term, President George W. Bush's first term, and the year 2005 as either Democrat, Republican, conservative, progressive, or neutral. The conclusion is clear: Republicans and conservatives have been offered more opportunities to appear on the Sunday shows - in some cases, dramatically so. Among the study's key findings: * The balance between Democrats/progressives and Republicans/conservatives was roughly equal during Clinton's second term, with a slight edge toward Republicans/conservatives: 52 percent of the ideologically identifiable guests were from the right, and 48 percent were from the left. But in Bush's first term, Republicans/ conservatives held a dramatic advantage, outnumbering Democrats/progressives by 58 percent to 42 percent. In 2005, the figures were an identical 58 percent to 42 percent. * Counting only elected officials and administration representatives, Democrats had a small advantage during Clinton's second term: 53 percent to 45 percent. In Bush's first term, however, the Republican advantage was 61 percent to 39 percent -- nearly three times as large. * In both the Clinton and Bush administrations, conservative journalists were far more likely to appear on the Sunday shows than were progressive journalists. In Clinton's second term, 61 percent of the ideologically identifiable journalists were conservative; in Bush's first term, that figure rose to 69 percent. * In 1997 and 1998, the shows conducted more solo interviews with Democrats/progressives than with Republicans/conservatives. But in every year since, there have been more solo interviews with Republicans/conservatives. * The most frequent Sunday show guest during this nine-year period is Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who has appeared 124 times. Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) has been the most frequent guest since 2003. * In every year examined by the study -- 1997 - 2005 -- more panels tilted right (a greater number of Republicans/conservatives than Democrats/progressives) than tilted left. In some years, there were two, three, or even four times as many righttitled panels as left-tilted panels. * Congressional opponents of the Iraq war were largely absent from the Sunday shows, particularly during the period just before the war began. In short, the Sunday talk shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC are dominated by conservative voices, from newsmakers to commentators. The data from the Clinton years indicate that the disparity cannot be explained simply by the fact that Republicans currently control the government. Click here to read the full report.PDF file For more detailed graphs on the Sunday show data, click herePDF file Posted to the web on Tuesday February 14, 2006 at 9:02 AM EST http://mediamatters.org/items/printable/200602140002
Liberal Media Evidence A new poll by the Pew Center proves that the media is as liberal as ever. When will "diversity" mean more conservatives? by Fred Barnes 05/28/2004 12:00:00 AM THE ARGUMENT over whether the national press is dominated by liberals is over. Since 1962, there have been 11 surveys of the media that sought the political views of hundreds of journalists. In 1971, they were 53 percent liberal, 17 percent conservative. In a 1976 survey of the Washington press corps, it was 59 percent liberal, 18 percent conservative. A 1985 poll of 3,200 reporters found them to be self-identified as 55 percent liberal, 17 percent conservative. In 1996, another survey of Washington journalists pegged the breakdown as 61 percent liberal, 9 percent conservative. Now, the new study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found the national media to be 34 percent liberal and 7 percent conservative. Over 40-plus years, the only thing that's changed in the media's politics is that many national journalists have now cleverly decided to call themselves moderates. But their actual views haven't changed, the Pew survey showed. Their political beliefs are close to those of self-identified liberals and nowhere near those of conservatives. And the proportion of liberals to conservatives in the press, either 3-to-1 or 4-to-1, has stayed the same. That liberals are dominant is now beyond dispute. NEXT COPY/ PASTE LIBERAL SLANTED POST PLEASE.
ZZZ, What nonsense. Just look at who the moderators of each of the mainstream media's Sunday morning shows are. Obvious lefties and Democrat hatchetmen like Chris Matthews, Tim Russert and actually the most objective, George Stephanopolous. The panels are typically three liberals and one timid conservative. Of course, the "study" you cite comes up with its absurd conclusions by classifying reporters as they do themselves, ie anyone who is not a registered communist is considered moderate or middle or the road. As for the guests, it would be appropriate for republicnas to predominate since they have controlled congress during this time frame and most of the guests are congresspeople. Typically, the shows try to balance the guests between republican and democrats, although they show a definite preference for republicans in name only like McCain and Chcuk Hagel. In other words, they slant the lineup to give preference to extreme democrat partisans like chuck Schumer and backstabbing republicans like McCain and Hagel. As noted inth epost above, anyone who can't detect the stench of liberal bias in these shows must be asleep or just willfully deluding themselves.
Hagel and McCain are republicans in name only... Too damn funny...... If you are not with us, you are against us...even within their own party.
You can always tell who the conservative is, the one that never gets to finish a sentence. Liberals biggest problem is two fold 1) they can't let anybody know what they really stand for 2) they can't let anybody know what conservatives really stand for.
Newspaper endorsements, Election 2000: Gore 52 Bush 138 http://www.wheretodoresearch.com/Political.htm#Endorsements MSNBC lineup: Yeah, yeah, I know Chris Matthews used to be a democrat...20-30 years ago when Hillary was a conservative. He admitted to have voted for Bush, is a huge fan of McCain, Guiliani and Tom Delay, his brother runs for office in PA as a republican. http://mediamatters.org/items/200505310005 Conservative radio hosts: Rush Limbaugh Sean Hannity Bill O`Reilly Michael Savage Michael Medved Laura Schlessinger Laura Ingraham and dozens of others. PS Please remind me how liberal the media is.
Dddooo, Chris Matthews is as much of a conservative as you are. I remember when he almost started crying when Michelle Malkin suggested that John Kerry's Vietnam wounds were self inflicted. He was proud (and mentioned this on TV) when his child was campaigning for Howard Dean. Who could forget his verbal tussle with Zeil Miller after the RNC. Chris Matthews is not a conservative. Maybe you are confusing him with someone else? AS far as all those radio hosts you've posted, Yes the AM dial is dominated by conservative talk show hosts. What about the newspapers? Put up a stat of papers that endorsed Bush in 2004 vs Kerry. What about the TV news broadcasters? (National and local) What about pop culture - Hollywood and the music industry??