Wrapping up a panel discussion (10/31/10) on Barack Obama's post-midterm political challenges, NBC reporter Chuck Todd raised the possibility that the Beltway debate on Afghanistan might change: On Afghanistan, the Democratic caucus that will be left, you brought this up, is going to be a very liberal caucus, very anti-war caucus. This is going to be a political challenge for him like no other. And by the way, a lot of these Tea Party conservatives have all talked about "We don't want to be there forever" in these debates…. They're all like, "I don't want to be nation builders." There [...]
Oct
11
2010
Joe Klein on Big Government Breastfeeding
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Thispast Sunday's edition of NBC'sMeet the Press (10/10/10) featuredtwo gueststalking about the midterms, the economy and public sentiment: conservative Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan and Time magazine's Joe Klein. Klein has been on a road trip through the middle of the country to assess how Americans are feeling (that is, Americans who don't live in "urban" areas or the "deep South," as Klein explained). Trying to explain how voters feel aboutWashington, Klein provided this anecdote: They have no idea what the Democrats stand for, except for these big, slovenly pieces of legislation that we've seen which inevitably contain ridiculous [...]
Sep
13
2010
But Older White Men Are 'Newsmakers'!
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A new study of the guest lists for the Sunday morning chat shows finds that the networks prefer lawmaker guests who are white, male, older and Republican. The study was publishedby the George Mason University School of Law's Green Bag Journal, and got a brief write-up in the New York Times today (9/13/10). And that means we got to hear excuses from the shows about why this is the case. Meet the Press executive producer Betsy Fischer spoke about how they are "committed to having a diverse group of voices on the program whose opinions and expertise reflect the cultural, [...]
Aug
19
2010
Open up the Afghanistan War Media Debate
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Public support for the Afghanistan war continues to drop. Casualties mount. So why is NBC's Meet the Press giving viewers a parade of hawkish pundits and military officials? If you haven't already done so, please join FAIR's call to broaden the debate on the war on the most-watched Sunday morning chat show. And while you're at, RethinkAfghanistan is asking people to sign a petition to CBS anchor Katie Couric to ask tough questions of Gen. David Petraeus.
Aug
02
2010
WikiLeaks on Sunday State TV
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The Afghanistan documents posted by WikiLeaks were obviously the big story of the week. So how did the network Sunday shows react to these disclosures, which have the potential to open up a real debate about the Afghan War? NBC's Meet the Press interviewedchairman of the Joint Chiefs of StaffMike Mullen. ABC's This Week featured an interview with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. On CBS, Face The Nation had Mike Mullen. What would state broadcasting look like again? CBS also had an interview withRichard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations (formerly of the Bush administration), who urged the U.S. to [...]
Mar
15
2010
Karl Rove, Still Lying on TV About Iraq
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Former Bush adviser Karl Rove is making the rounds to promote his new book Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight. He landed on NBC's Meet the Press yesterday (3/14/10), interviewed by Tom Brokaw. Brokaw asked him about his book's discussion of the Iraq War: BROKAW: And in it, you acknowledge when weapons of mass destruction were not found, everyone was startled and not very happy about that. If that had been the case before war began, you couldn't have gotten congressional authorization. ROVE: Nor in all likelihood U.N. approval, as we had as well. BROKAW: [...]
Apr
22
2009
Unaccountability: 'A Trans-Partisan Religious Tenet of Beltway Culture'
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Blogging from his regular Salon perch (4/20/09, ad-viewing required), Glenn Greenwald notes that the public wants to investigate U.S. torture (that's what the polls tell us), but: These facts about public opinion are virtually always excluded from establishment media discussions, and those who advocate investigations and prosecutions–the view held by large percentages, if not majorities, of Americans–are virtually never heard from. That's because the belief that elites should be exempted from all consequences when they break the law is as close to a trans-partisan religious tenet of Beltway culture as it gets. Consider yesterday's Meet the Press panel discussion of [...]
Mar
03
2009
David Gregory Mistakes Dow for Opinion Poll
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David Gregory, host of NBC's Meet the Press (3/1/09): The Obama stimulus package, $787 billion. The housing plan, $75 billion. That's $2.3 trillion. Seven hundred and fifty billion dollars additional in this document for additional bailout money for the banks. Meantime, what metric do we have to see how people–what people think of that government intervention? The Dow is one metric. It closed on Friday at its lowest level since 1997, just over 7,000. The Dow is not a measure about what "people" think about government policies. It's a measure of what the tiny, elite group of people who trade [...]
Feb
23
2009
David Gregory, Fat Cat in Denial
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David Gregory sticking up for bank stockholders on Meet the Press (2/22/09): There's a larger point here, which is, first of all, the more…the shares of…these banks gets talked down…the closer you get to wiping out the shareholder completely. And it's, it's not clear to me that everybody understands that the investor in this country, who is not just a fat cat, the investor is us…. It is the taxpayer, it's the teacher, it's someone who's invested in a 401(k). The investors on the sidelines, scared to death about taking any risk. And unless that changes, this economy really can't [...]
Feb
03
2009
Erin Burnett Sticks Up for the Little Guy
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The roundtable on Sunday's Meet the Press (2/1/09) sure didn't look promising: Republican flat tax enthusiast Steve Forbes, former McCain economic adviser Mark Zandi and CNBC reporter Erin Burnett. It was Burnett, though, whodeliveredahead-scratching defense of the$18 billionbonusesrecently doled out atWall Street firms (many of which are still standing thanks only to the government's multi-billion dollar TARP bailout). As Burnett explained, the populist anger was misplaced (see bold): BURNETT: I understand the outrage, and you understand the populism. There are, though–well, how should we say this? The taxpayer money is not being used to pay the bonuses. I think people [...]
Oct
28
2008
Chuck Todd and Tom Brokaw Know Latinos
By 1 Comment
Tom Brokaw, the interim host of NBC's Meet the Press, and NBC analyst Chuck Todd expressed bafflement on last Sunday's Meet the Press (10/26/08) at how Latinos had "turned on the Republican Party" and their "friend" John McCain: TODD: I mean, this, this Hispanic–one of the things we–underreported story of the cycle is how Hispanics have just turned on the Republican Party, hurting John McCain. Frankly…. BROKAW: Who is a friend of theirs. TODD: Who is a friend of theirs. BROKAW: Right. TODD: You know, this is a Shakespearean–you know, the S… BROKAW: Right. It's hard to know exactly where [...]
