September 21, 2014 by David K. Sutton

Republicans Outnumber Democrats On Sunday News Shows

Now I know why I so strongly dislike the Sunday morning news shows. The New York Times ‘The Upshot’ reviewed data collected by American University, combined with ideological scores calculated by Crowdpac, and concluded that since January 2009, liberal bias simply does not exist when it comes to the Sunday morning news shows. Okay, they didn’t exactly put it that way, that’s my wording, but what the The Upshot did find is that congressional members from the conservative side of the aisle made up 57 percent of appearances compared to 42 percent for liberal Senators and representatives.

This slightly lopsided distribution is primarily the result of three Republican senators’ frequent visits to the network shows: John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell. Because of the Republican Party’s control of the House during the past three years, its leaders and committee chairmen are presented with more opportunities to discuss the latest political news.

There’s just one problem with this analysis, because the review of data started in January 2009, when Democrats had control of the House, Senate, and White House. I also have a problem with their characterization of the results. For example, if someone won an election 57 percent to 42 percent, we would call that a landslide in 2014, not “slightly lopsided.” But go on…

Participants in the 2008 and 2012 presidential nominating contests also helped boost conservative representation: Paul D. Ryan, the Wisconsin congressman who was the G.O.P.‘s 2012 vice-presidential nominee, made 46 appearances between early January 2009 and Aug. 3 this year.

Okay, but that seems to confirm the conservative bias on the Sunday shows, right? Let’s face it people, these Sunday news shows are produced by corporate media, and the last time I checked, corporations lean conservative, sometimes heavily. Sure, there is the outlier that is MSNBC, but outside that one network, every other major news network or news show is at best neutral. As for the Sunday shows, at least since 2009, they reflect the ideological makeup of their corporate overlords.