The Liberal Media Takes A Holiday

A new argument emerges countering the notion of a vast liberal media conspiracy. According to a new study from Media Matters for America, the Sunday morning talk shows (Meet the Press, Face the Nation, This Week with George Stephanopolous, and Fox News Sunday) have, over the past several years perpetually featured more conservative and Republican guests than progressive/liberal/Democrats. This includes elected officials, pundits, commentators, and any other guests. Across the board, all of the shows tilt to the right. Maybe the 'liberal media' needs a day off in the week to re-charge the batteries for all of the liberal-ness they'll spew the rest of the week....or maybe the media isn't as liberal as the conservatives/Republicans claim it to be (especially during their apparently many appearances with said 'liberal media').

From the study's conclusion:
"The overall conclusion of this study is clear: All four Sunday-morning talk shows gave Republicans and conservatives significantly more airtime than Democrats and progressives during 2005 and 2006.

While there are variations among Meet the Press, This Week, Face the Nation, and Fox News Sunday, all showed evidence of imbalance toward the right. All four programs featured more Republicans and conservatives than Democrats and progressives. All four hosted more conservative journalists than progressive journalists. All four gave more solo interviews to Republicans than to Democrats. All four were more likely to feature a panel tilted to the right than tilted to the left.

We must note that we make no claims of intentional bias in the systematic over-representation of conservatives that we have documented. It is not our assertion that the producers of the Sunday-morning talk shows have set out to intentionally skew their programs in favor of right-leaning voices. Whatever the combination of reasons that produced the imbalance, the imbalance nonetheless exists. It is our hope that our study will lead these shows to scrutinize their practices.

...Furthermore, no network representative has ever given an answer to the question of why conservative journalists outnumber progressive journalists so dramatically on the Sunday shows. This question has nothing to do with which party is in power, and the disparity has been obvious for all of the past decade.

In the wake of the November 2006 elections, it will be interesting to see how the networks respond to the new Democratic majority in particular and the shifting political climate in general. Will progressive voices continue to be marginalized? Will the "reasonable" center continue to be defined by an overrepresentation of conservatives and a paucity of progressives?"