WHEN SUNDAY SHOWS GET IT RIGHT (AND WHEN THEY DON’T)…. On ABC’s “This Week,” viewers will see host Christiane Amanpour report live from Tripoli, including an important interview with Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi. It’s followed by Jake Tapper hosting a roundtable discussion with four governors: Arizona’s Jan Brewer (R), Massachusetts’ Deval Patrick (D), Colorado’s John Hickenlooper (D), and South Carolina’s Nikki Haley (R).
For all the complaining I do about the Sunday shows, this is a strong lineup. Amanpour’s reporting from the Middle East has been great, and Tapper’s panel features the kind of diversity — party, gender, race, region — that these panels too often lack.
CNN’s “State of the Union” also deserves some credit for steering clear of an all-Republican lineup. The five guests are all white guys, but at least there’s party diversity — two governors (one Dem, one Republican) and three senators (one Dem, one GOP, and one independent).
Faiz Shakir, however, is right to draw attention to the other three.
Last Sunday also tilted heavily toward GOP voices. This Sunday the trend continues. Three Sunday shows — Fox, CBS, and NBC — locked out Democratic voices as featured guests:
Fox News Sunday: Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN), former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR)
CBS Face the Nation: Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ)
NBC Meet the Press: Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
“Meet the Press” included one Democrat and one labor leader — the latter thrown in under pressure late in the week — for its roundtable, but when it came to feature interviews, it’s yet another Sunday in which Republican guests dominated.
This comes just two weeks after the Sunday shows featured two Republican senators, three Republican House members, three likely Republican presidential candidates … and zero Democrats from Congress or the Obama administration.
Liberal media, indeed.
