Weekend Show *Preview* for 9/2 - 9/3/06 (not the live thread)

It's Labor Day weekend! The press can now concentrate (without feeling silly) on the Fall elections. Who cares if there's actual news that might affect the future of human existence, let alone the fortunes of the United States and all Americans? They get to report on the horse race!

Meet The Press starts off the Sunday shows in my area, so I'll talk about them first. Lil' Timmah is back and he's got a signature MTP event - live debates. He'll get to sit upright to ask questions of Casey and hunch over to his hearts delight when ~~attacking~~ asking questions of Santorum. This is an attempt to resurrect what appears to be a failing campaign for the Democrats. When all people knew was the name "Casey" they had good feelings, as this candidate is the son of a still "beloved" ex-governor. But as the voters actually learned about Jr. his polls began to dive. MTP will attempt to reintroduce ~~their~~ the Democrats' candidate and kick start his campaign

Face The Nation offers up a contrast of the steady, professional and honest Mitch McConnell versus the loony toons DNC chairman, Howard Dean. Guess who Bob Schieffer will be deferential to and who he will attack? Good guess. The DBM sees the nutroots as "the coming thing" and Dean as their pied piper. They even dream of gaining credibility with the Kos Kids and thereby restoring their credibility. McConnell will stomp all over Schieffer and Dean, but Schieffer and Dean will just not notice or care.

Fox News Sunday sets up the Republican and Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee chairs, Dole and Schumer, for a discussion of the Senate battle. Wallace will concentrate on how bad Dole did in recruiting and the conflict on the other side that the DSCC and the equivalent Democrat Congressional Campain Committee are having with the nutroots. And the breathless analysis will focus on the likelihood of the Republicans losing control. It's a horse race folks! Pay attention!

ABC This Week, has their own "horse race" story with their "on the road" segment, this time the Republican primary in Rhode Island. They're trying to set up a "throw the bums out" approach if Chaffee loses, and a "it's about his opposition to the Iraq war" one if he wins. Either way they hope to cast it as doom for the Republicans. They also offer up time for Joe Biden to strike back at the mean folks in the Bush administration for daring, (daring!) to compare opposition to the war on terror to the failure to challenge fascism in the 30s. In fact, it was so unfair of the Bush administration that ABC is giving ol' Joe free time without fear of any of his statements being challenged by anyone, because they don't have an opposing voice from the administration, and you know that Georgie won't say anything critical or challenging of a Democrat (at least not one in good standing). Oh, they also throw in Bo Derek for eye candy and animal rights appeal. Do you suppose she's promised to trash Bush, who she has supported, if they give her air time for her ~~pet~~ horse project?

CNN Late Edition offers up politics with Harold Ford Jr. as a possible Democrat pick up in the Senate (they hope) and Chris Shays as a potential Republican loss in the House (they hope), though they do probably give us Shays because he has turned on Bush over an Iraq pull out, so this could be a payoff, free face time as quid for his quo. We'll have to see how they treat the Deputy PM from Iraq and his work to get the economy going. I bet they only want to ask him about the latest "success" by the terrorists. The Lanny Davis segment could get interesting, since he was a Lieberman supporter, and he's had this amazing revelation about how mean the blogs can be. It's not clear that Matthew Dowd will be on in the same segment, but it is clear they are trying to tie Bush to Schwarzenegger in the California Governor's race.

Fox News Sunday gives us Dole vs. Schumer in the battle for the Senate. Elizabeth Dole appears to be the designated "fall gal" if the Republicans do lose the Senate. How much you wanna bet they don't ask Schumer anything about his call for the special prosecutor in what is now exposed as the Valerie Plame-out fraud? And then they turn to Arlen Specter, who isn't the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, to describe the upcoming Congressional Agenda. Huh? Excuse me? But all is right with the world. Brit is back and Juan is on the panel. Can you say "smack down?"

The Saturday shows Give us their usual warm up for the main event on Sunday. Mort and Fred repeat their SNL routine ("Mort you ignorant slut"), this time focusing on both Labor Day issues and the Bush administrations latest counter to the incessant Bush bashing over Iraq. Mort will give his patented imitation of the Democrat talking points, which even he doesn't believe and Fred will still be unable to counter as he stumbles over forgotten names and affiliations. Fred, get a research assistant for names and organizations, have them write stuff down and then READ IT!!!!! You know this stuff, you just have an awful time dredging it up on camera. It ruins what you're trying to say. Russert's Saturday show on CNBC is a repeat filler as he preps for the "big debate," live, on his Sunday show. Fox News Watch continues to prove that they are totally ignoring their stated mission of critically examining the new media and instead going out of their way to defend or ignore the most outrageous fraud being pushed by the DBM. I've written them a screed to challenge their continued malfeasance, but I doubt it will do any good (I'll post the text on this thread, as well). And JER, as usual, provides a calm, reasoned analysis of the actual issues of the week. And the ratings just ain't there for them. Whose fault is that?

The web stuff was interesting this week. ABC, NBC and CBS, of all folks, had their stuff up by Thursday. CNN and Fox News Sunday were relatively late to the Sunday show party, but they both got their stuff posted by mid day on Friday. CNN still doesn't have anything other than the list of guests, but I can infer the topics from that. Any errors on that are strictly my fault, but I have little fear of where I think they're going. Following the pattern of the last couple of weeks the Saturday shows are getting their stuff up after most of the Sunday shows do. That may indicate the relative value the networks (Fox and NBC) put on their Saturday shows. That's a shame. Turn me loose on say Fox News Watch and I'll give them "must see TV" every week.

This is cross posted at my blog at Wizards.Townhall.COM. This post exists primarily as a heads up for who is on the weekend talks shows, what they've been invited on to push (based on their recent pronouncements) and the spin (meme) the DBM is likely trying to push based on that information. All of this is prep work for the weekly Sunday Morning Talk Show thread posted by Alas Babylon!. That thread provides a live commentary and analysis of the Sunday talking head shows, with rare insight and exceptional fact checking. we are the Jedi Council of FreeRepublic, at least in regards to these DBM gabfests. You wanna know what was said and what it meant, as well as where they messed up? Read that thread!

I will also post a link to Mark Kilmer's excellent preview over at RedState.COM when it is up.

Phsstpok, the reality is the left does not care or believe they were wrong. They remain delusional. Here's an email response I got from an activist Democrat on this very issue.

I don't think Wilson's jumping to conclusions is all that outrageous.
There were many meetings in the White House to figure out a way to discredit Wilson, I think any paranoia on his part is well deserved.

Truth and best for the country????
Armitage did admit the outing of Plame to the State department days after it happened. Why did this administration keep that a secret and have us go through all the mess and expense of an investigation? Was it so they could come out just before the election and show that the White House staff was innocent and wrongly tried by gossip?

Armitage is a Republican and he has always been a Republican patriot, worked with presidents and other high figures forever. Why would you ever say he was anti-US though? Guess it depends on what you mean by US.

Of course I was ready to see Rove dragged through an overflowing Iraqi morgue for his part in it(which we'll probably never know).

Why wouldn't the Democrats ignore this - it turned out to be a non-story.
Why would Republicans bring it up - they are the ones that kept it a secret for 3 years.

Either way Bush said he'd fire whoever did it. Maybe that's why he kept the secret - he didn't want to fire the number 2 guy at the State Department.

Oh, by the way, what was it that Wilson lied about?

Yes, the person is a friend. He got involved in politics from being a dopey environmentalist whacko, and he's gone downhill from there. A number of us worked together for a company that is now kaput so the friendships developed long before politics ever became an issue. We have a full spectrum of political thought represented, from a RINO to a pro-war Democrat to a Libertarian. It does make for interesting discussions.

2000 was the first time he had gotten involved, and he was 'shocked' that Al Gore lost since the press kept saying Al would win. The he lost it when Kerry lost since they all expected a big win. No idea how he's going to handle losing this year and worse again in 2008. Typically, he has convinced himself that the majority of the country thinks the way he does and he does not handle rejection very well.

It sounds like you're handling this all very well, Phsstpok. You've had lots of practice, I guess, but your choices aren't terribly appealing, are they?

I hope the new glasses work so you can put off the surgery for at least a few months. Being home recuperating around Christmas in the cold weather might be the best bet.

Hugs,
Peach

BAJA California and the west coast of Mexico was getting the Sht beat out of it by Hurricane John..and NO ONE NOTICED until it was too late do get reporters there...LOL

*****

Early in the week I saw a weatherbabe standing "in front of" a weather map that showed both huge red/yellow swirling circles. She went on and on about the looming havoc of Ernesto and never even mentioned John! If that wasn't an example of newsroom tunnelvision, I don't know what is.

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