Here is the lineup of guests for this week's Sunday morning news shows.
Meet The Press
Hillary Clinton-Secretary of State, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Tim Kaine-Democratic National Committee Chairman, and Martin Indyk-a former U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
CBS Face The Nation
Hillary Clinton-Secretary of State and Bill Daley-White House Chief of Staff.
CNN State Of The Union
Hillary Clinton-Secretary of State, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), John Negroponte-former U.N. Ambassador, and Edward Walker-a former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt.
Fox News Sunday
Hillary Clinton-Secretary of State and John Boehner (R-OH).
ABC This Week
Hillary Clinton -Secretary of State, Sameh Shoukry-Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S., Zbigniew Brzezinksi-National Security Advisor to former President Jimmy Carter.
If you miss the live airing of these shows, they are re-aired on CSPAN Radio starting at 12:00 PM EST. CSPAN radio can be listened to on WCSP-FM 90.1 Washington, DC, XM Radio 132, and CSPAN.org.
CSPAN Radio for iPhone App can be found at CSPAN.org.
To watch these shows at a later date, check the television network's websites that airs these programs.
There was a great exchange on Friday's Morning Joe program between host Joe Scarborough and The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel. She takes on the corporate media about their commentary and how disconnected it is from average American sentiment. Scarborough attempts to excoriate her when she challenges the beltway "conventional wisdom" and the very narrow prism that issues facing our nation today are debated by the punditry class.
Remember how the corporate media reiterated how important it was for those Bush Tax Cuts to get extended? No matter what network you were watching, they all championed the importance of not allowing these tax cuts to expire. They championed how extending the tax cuts would create many new jobs, etc.
The few opponents of the tax cut extensions that were able to get on television to discuss their views, constantly reiterated that extending these tax cuts would add another $1 trillion to the deficit. Their opinions were quickly dismissed by anchors and pundits.
Fast forward to yesterday. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a non-partisan agency charged with reviewing congressional budgets and other legislative initiatives, released a report stating that the extension of those Bush Tax Cuts will add another $1 to $1.5 trillion to the nations' deficit.
Now, the same corporate media that championed these tax cuts for months as the "cure all" for our economy, acts as if they are completely stunned that reducing tax revenues would increase the deficits.
Watch one of the chief proponents of the tax extension, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, react to the news this morning on his program Morning Joe.
Last night President Obama gave the 2011 State of the Union Address (SOTU). Prior to 1966, the POTUS would give the address to the Congress and the American people with no rebuttal response given. The practice of providing a rebuttal response to the SOTU was started during Lyndon Baines Johnson's administration.
The "opposition" party would provide that response. Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) was selected by the Republican Party to provide last night's rebuttal response to the President's address. Never before in US history has a second rebuttal response been featured by a major news network until last night. CNN, for whatever reason, decided to give Representative Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) airtime for her rebuttal, why?
President Obama is a democrat. Paul Ryan is a republican. Michelle Bachmann is a republican. Why would a television news network decide to give 2 republicans airtime for the rebuttal response to the same SOTU address?
Think about in this context. When President Bush was in office, did CNN or any other news network give 2 democratic politicians airtime for rebuttal responses to his SOTU addresses? The answer is no. So why does the general rules apply differently to Tea Party Republicans at networks like CNN?
It was reported last month that CNN is "partnering" with the Tea Party Express to co-sponsor a GOP debate in Tampa, Florida in August 2011. Can anyone imagine CNN co-sponsoring a democratic debate with Moveon.org? In the opinion of some, myself included, CNN has been attempting for the last several years to emulate some of the FOX News Netowrk's stragegy for programming. They have hired right wing pundits like Erik Erickson and Bill Bennett last year. They appear to be increasingly catering to the right with shows like John King USA, where there will often times be 3 right leaning pundits versus 1 left leaning pundit on their panels. Or shows like Howard Kurt's Reliable Sources, where he frequently defends extreme right commentary made by individuals like Sarah Palin. Is this balance? No.
Every since CNN has undertaken this "Fox-lite" strategy their ratings have slipped. Last year for the first time in their history, CNN slipped to a 3rd place rating among the 3 cable news networks. This strategy is not working for them, but they continue to "tilt" to the right. Why?
Here is Rachel Maddow from MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show talking about CNN decision to air Michelle Bachman's rebuttal response.
This morning I tuned into MSNBC's Morning Joe program and they were talking politics as usual. John Heilemann of the New Yorker, a frequent round table contributor to the program, was discussing President Obama's White House staff changes and said that the President's selection of Bill Daley as White House Chief of Staff signals that the President is now willing to listen to "outside voices".
In case you have not read up on Mr. Daley, he was President Clinton's Commerce Secretary, managed Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign in 2000, sat on the board of Fannie Mae in 1993, served as President of SBC Communications, served as Midwest Chairman for JP Morgan Chase, served on the Board of Directors of Boeing, Merck & Co., and Loyola University, is a trustee of Northwestern University, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
And someone with a resume that reads like that, to John Heilemann, represents an "outside voice" in the White House?
Here is the lineup of guests for this week's Sunday morning news shows.
Meet The Press
Representatives Eric Cantor (R-VA) and James Clyburn (D-SC).
CBS Face The Nation
Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and John McCain (R-AZ).
CNN State Of The Union
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Fox News Sunday
Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Dick Durbin (D-IL).
ABC This Week
Senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and Mike Lee (R-UT).
Representatives Chris Gibson (R-NY) and Bob Schilling (R-IL).
If you miss the live airing of these shows, they are re-aired on CSPAN Radio starting at 12:00 PM EST. CSPAN radio can be listened to on WCSP-FM 90.1 Washington, DC, XM Radio 132, and CSPAN.org.
CSPAN Radio for iPhone App can be found at CSPAN.org.
To watch these shows at a later date, check the television network's websites that airs these programs.
Republican Representative Paul Broun of Georgia appeared as a guest on the conservative Scott Hennen Radio Show. He stated that the idea to have Democrats and Republicans sit together during next week's State Of The Union Address is an attempt to "silence" Republicans.
This morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman appeared on the program to discuss his decision t retire from the US Senate. One of the round table guest on the program this morning was Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post. Senator Lieberman was asked by host Joe Scarborough if knowing the information that has since been revealed, would he still have supported invading Iraq? Needless to say, Lieberman proceeded to "doubled-down" on his support for invading and Iraq.
How many times during the last 2 years have we heard the GOP use the phrase "government ran health care" to describe any attempt by the Democrats to address the problems we have in the US from exorbitant high costs for health insurance plans to denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions? One of the main criticisms of the Affordable Health Care Act, the plan passed by the Democrats in Congress and signed into law by the President, was that it did not contain a government plan as an option to compete against private insurance plans. Yet, the GOP continues to falsely call the Affordable Health Care Act, a "government take over of health care".
But when the majority of GOP congressional members are asked personally if they will give up their health plan which actually is a government ran plan, which is one of the many benefits of being elected to the US Congress, they seem to have an odd reaction to the question.
Television news sure ain't what it used to be? Here is Donnie Deutsch appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe program giving his "thoughtful" and "insightful" analysis of why some are fascinated with Sarah Palin. If you can recall, Deutsch had his own show on MSNBC's sister network CNBC called The Big Idea With Donnie Deutsch. You would think that a man who started and successfully ran his own advertising firm that sold for over $200, 000, 000 would have a little more to say? I guess not?
Over the last several years our political discourse in the United States has become very toxic. As a political junkie I have noticed that certain extreme viewpoints and those who espouse them have now become mainstream in corporate media. How did this happen?
This is what I think explains this. First, Fox News has larger ratings shares than other cable news networks and it would appear their strategy of fear mongering and far right extremism gets more viewers to tune in. So as a result, other television news outlets are perceiving "right wing extremism" as a recipe for higher ratings.
Cable news networks like CNN and MSNBC (several years ago) have decided to emulate this strategy by hiring extremist as hosts and paid contributors. CNN has hired Bill Bennett as a paid contributor. In 2005 Bennett made this horrendous statement on his syndicated radio talk show " If it were your sole purpose to reduce crime, Bennett said, "You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. "That would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down," he added.
CNN also hired Glenn Beck in 2006 to host his own talk show on their sister network Headline News. Beck's said to then newly elected U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn), a Muslim: "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies." Beck called Hurricane Katrina victims "refugees."
Michael Savage was hired by MSNBC to host his own show after making such offensive statements on his radio show like "What will it take to wake you up to the fact that you are being erased from the future of America? And why are you being erased? If you're a person of European descent, why do they want your child to be a minority in America? And when your little girl is a minority in America, what will happen to her? Tell me what will happen to her? Do you think that the minorities, when they take over the country, will be quite as benevolent and as enlightened as the European-Americans are today? Or do you sense that just perhaps, just maybe, they will not bring the learnings of the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, to their new power?"
The cable news network executives apparently never once thought about what they were going to be doing to our political environment in the US by hiring these merchants of extremism and hate and bringing them to mainstream national television audiences. CNN's head at the time, Kenneth Jautz, was quoted as saying in an interview "the network did not take Beck's politics into account when it hired him. We did not set out to have anyone from any particular view fronting these shows." But how could the network executive not have known about his outrageous commentary? Individuals who are applying for even minimum wage jobs are subjected to various background checks and verifications and I find it very difficult to be believe that CNN would hire an individual to host a program on their national cable television network without a full vetting of that individual's background?
What these cable news networks were merely trying to do is emulate Fox News's formula and it has not worked. It would appear MSNBC has learned but CNN seems to have not learned that lesson? They seem content with still trying to be Fox-lite and their ratings have suffered immensely. The more CNN ratings sink, the more rightward they continue to turn. They are now consistently third place among the three cable news networks. In the process of the bad "experiment" that both CNN and MSNBC engaged in, they unfortunately helped to open the door for this extremism to become more mainstream and to have a seat at the table.
Now in the wake of the Arizona tragedy, cable news networks and their anchors are anxious to quickly down play that there could be any correlation between extreme rage rhetoric and other people's actions.
How often do you hear that the mainstream media has a liberal bias? Maybe, several times a day if you're listening to conservatives on cable news or talk radio or even on regular news programs with mainstream journalists? The right wing for several years now has been using what I call "rage rhetoric" as a call to action to their followers to get involved politically. The more extreme statements these individuals seem to make, the more they are asked to appear on various cable news programs as guests. The more they are offered huge deals in radio and television for their very own shows. Or they are asked to be paid contributors to what is supposed to be mainstream news networks like CNN.
Who are some examples? Bill Bennett, for starters, who stated "If you want to lower crime in the US you should abort all black male babies" was signed after that statement to CNN for a paid contributor role. Another example is Erik Erickson of RedState .com, a right wing blogger, who stated that "Ted Kennedy plots our deaths" and "The media has gang-raped conservative politicians" was also signed recently as a paid contributer to CNN. Rage talker Glen Beck signed several years ago for his own program on CNN's Headline News Network. Where were/are the liberals to offset any of this at CNN? Can anyone name even one?
Fast forward to the horrible acts that were committed yesterday against Representative Giffords and you seem to have a concerted effort by many reporters at CNN to deny that there is any kind of correlation between using extreme language in our discourse and the effect it could have on people listening to you.
CNN had a discussion on this subject last night after the horrific shooting in Arizona about Sarah Palin's use of gun targets on one of her websites on various politicians currently serving in the US House of Representatives. CNN and their pundits saw no correlation between this incident and all of this extreme rhetoric that Palin and others have been engaged in.
Sadly, Representative Giffords who was shot in this terrible incident and is fighting for her life, had complained back last March about Palin's use of these gun targets on current members of the Congress. She appeared in an interview on MSNBC's Daily Rundown where host Chuck Todd preceded to poo poo Giffords concerns.
Watch CNN pundits attempting to explain away Palin's dangerous rhetoric.
How tragic are the events that have taken place in Arizona today? We pray that Representative Giffords pulls through this horrific event. And bless the family members of those that were unfortunately slain.
In what seems very apocalyptic now, Representative Giffords had been interviewed back in March 2010 on MSNBC's Daily Rundown about threats she had received after the passage of the healthcare reform bill. I saw this interview live when it originally aired and was angered at MSNBC's Chuck Todd's disposition about all of the out of control extreme rhetoric that has become apart of this nation's discourse.
Yesterday Republican Senator Lindsey Graham made false statements during his appearance on NBC's Meet The Press. Is is not the job of the host of Meet The Press to point out when false statements are made by it's guests?
Watch David Gregory as he allows Senator Graham get away with telling whoppers about the President's health care plan containing a government ran plan.
Christine O'Donnell who lost a race for the Delaware US Senate to Chris Coons responds to a federal criminal probe investing her use of campaing monies.
