I don’t mind the Sunday Morning talk shows to be honest. Not so long ago, you had folks like George Will just shred American liberalism and the policies of the Obama administration on a weekly basis. The "woke" virus hadn't taken hold. The Tea Party was on the rise. It was your run-of-the-mill discussions from the Beltway Elite and consumed by news junkies. Yet, post-Trump, and maybe since forever, it has become an outlet for the detached political class to spew what they think matters but isn't on the minds of most Americans.
In 2009-10, health care was on everyone’s mind so maybe that's an exception, but Tom Bevan, co-founder of RealClearPolitics, had a good thread concerning why last weekend's slate of shows was particularly appalling.
??1. I stopped watching the Sunday shows years ago because, well, they’re generally awful. But they are a reliable indicator of the bias and groupthink of the Beltway pundit class. This week is a perfect example.
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) May 17, 2021
2. Lots of news to cover, including a surprise CDC announcement on masks & shooting war in Middle East. But, of course, the Sunday shows – with 1 exception, which I’ll get to later - devoted the majority of their time to covering Liz Cheney’s ouster as GOP conference chair.
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) May 17, 2021
3. Let’s start with the worst, which, not surprisingly, was Chuck Todd’s Meet the Press. He did 2 interviews (one with GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw and one with GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger)…
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) May 17, 2021
4. That was followed by a panel discussion that included 2 left-of-center journalists (Kristin Welker of NBC & Peter Baker of the NYT), Democrat Donna Edwards, and Republican Brendan Buck – who worked for Speakers Ryan and Boehner and backs Cheney.
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) May 17, 2021
Overall, Todd devoted 43.5% of his program to the Cheney/GOP dispute – roughly 21 minutes. CDC guidelines received 24.6% of MTP’s air time, Biden challenges 12.3%, and the conflict in the Middle East just 5.3% (2 minutes and 32 seconds).
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) May 17, 2021
6. ABC’s This Week with Martha Raddatz was just as bad: 43.0% of the entire program was devoted to Cheney/GOP dispute – including a long interview w/Cheney herself. CDC guidelines 21.9%, Middle East 14.1%, fallout from Colonial Pipeline hack 7.1%, infrastructure 6.6%.
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) May 17, 2021
7. Fox News Sunday also gave most of its airtime to L’Affaire Cheney – also featuring long interview w/Cheney herself. Plus 3 min of discussion from panelists Steve Hayes (no fan of Trump) & Dem Juan Williams (ditto), and Chris Wallace devoted 31.4% of his air time to Cheney.
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) May 17, 2021
8. The only show that didn’t devote the majority of its airtime to Cheney – in fact didn’t mention her name at all – was Face the Nation.
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) May 17, 2021
9. John Dickerson had exclusive interview w/Bibi, in total devoting 39.6% coverage to Middle East. Colonial pipeline fallout got 17.8%, CDC guidelines 15.5%, and special feature on Sens. Ernst & Gillibrand’s bipartisan effort to deal w/sex assault in the military received 15.3%.
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) May 17, 2021
The Biden White House is engulfed in multiple crises. We have Israel and Hamas on the brink of war, COVID, inflation, a gas crisis after Colonial Pipeline was shut down by hackers, and the border crisis. We’re getting rolled by China. Russia is back to flexing its muscles along the Ukrainian border. And Biden is asleep at the switch. Inflation is especially of high concern as these folks talking on the Sunday circuits will seldom be impacted. Their bills might be higher, but the rich can pay them. The average American family is going to get killed by the grocery and gas bills going up. No, no—we can't talk about things that make Joe Biden look bad. We need to focus a lot on Liz Cheney and her recent ejection from her position as Chair of the House Republican Conference due to her inability to do her job well because she cannot shut the hell up about Donald Trump. Bevan noted that "Face the Nation" was the only show not to eat a massive chunk of their time trying to sow seeds of discontent with the Cheney ouster.
It’s not a big deal, and we all see through this show. The liberal media and Democrats flocking to Liz’s defense…are you kidding me? They hate her, but she's good material to use to manufacture this fake news narrative of a GOP civil war. Yes, I'm sure Liz loved her time on television, but if she wants to be used as a weapon for Democratic Party messaging, then she truly is a traitor.
The world is on fire, so let's talk about Cheney. That sounds about right for the mindset of newsrooms nowadays.
H/T Twitchy