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Media Matters' Latest Report

Media Matters, a progressive media watchdog, have created another media analysis of Sunday Talk Shows, called "If It's Sunday, It's Still Conservative," and their findings confirm what those of us who watch the media already know: Conservative voices far outweigh progressive ones on Sunday talk shows. Their reports in the past have shown that conservatives such as John McCain are far more apt to be featured in one-on-one interviews than Democrats or progressives. Their latest report reveals that, on 'Meet the Press,' 'This Week,' 'Face the Nation,' and 'Fox News Sunday,' Republicans and conservatives outweigh Democrats and progressives by a large margin, 44% to 27%.

Media Matters makes the important point that, considering Democrats swept the 2006 elections, one would expect a greater amount of Democratic voices on these shows, but only 'This Week with George Stephanopolous" has made strides in having at least as many Democrats/progressives on as Republicans/conservatives and, surprise, surprise, Fox News Sunday has the greatest deficit between featured individuals and their political affiliation, favoring Republicans over Democrats by a margin of 50% to 25%.

And I agree with Media Matters CEO and President David Brock when he says "On the whole, our report shows the all-important Sunday shows are largely out of step with what's happening in Washington and across America. The deck is still stacked in favor of conservatives.This is a serious problem for the networks, one that compromises their integrity and threatens to taint political discourse across the country." Surely, the Sunday news shows need to have more progressive and Democratic voices on their forums and featured interviews, as the right wing has been given too much voice on these programs for too long.

Official report: http://mediamatters.org/sundayshowreport/online_version/

posted by Michael Martin @ 4:59 AM