Posted on 03/10/2007 9:22:53 AM PST by Phsstpok
Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:
NBC's "Meet the Press"
CBS's "Face the Nation"
"Fox News Sunday"
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CNN "Late Edition"
ABC's "This Week"
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Also, during research I found these listings for those that follow the Sunday side show:
C-SPAN's Newsmakers:
The Chris Matthews Show:
The surge is now definitely working and their attempts to say it wasn't failed last week. The combined efforts of Okinawa Jack Murtha, Chucky Schumer, Di Fi, Charlie "troops are stupid" Rangel, Chris "waitress sandwich" Dodd, wise old Carl Levin and the assembled masses of professional anti-war journalists couldn't get that notion to stick. I make it 7 of 15 guests (4 were on primarily for other topics) and 16 of the 19 journalists as committed to the "anti-war" movement. And they failed, miserably. They failed to such an extent that Brian Williams couldn't hide behind any wise pronouncements by them and avoid admitting that the surge is working on his show while broadcasting from Iraq (note, the info is from a John Gibson commentary about William's comments... I can't find it on NBC's site, surprise, surprise).
Since attacking the surge directly didn't work they are likely going to go back to simply ignoring it. To do that they'll need to come up with another meme for discussing Iraq. They're going to try two, the first being an attempt to characterize the multi-lateral talks between the US, Iraq and Iraq's neighbors in a regional security conference as a sign that the administration is planning on cutting and running. No doubt there will be anti-American propaganda aplenty coming out of Tehran and Damascus for the DBM to trumpet. How sophisticated their delivery is and how prepared the Dhimmicrat and RINO guests are to expound on our "dismal failures" in agreement with the Mullah's and the eye doctor will tell us whether there was advanced coordination in the widely separated performances.
The other main themes last week were the "scandal" at Walter Reed hospital and the economic crash about to happen. No one bought the economic story. Even the main players trying to sell the notion looked embarrassed... except Charlie Rangel... he's never embarrassed by anything he says. But the Walter Reed story seemed to work for them. Silly statements about (surprise!) bad outpatient treatment and implications that this is new and unique in VA hospitals in the Bush era went unchallenged in the rush by Republicans to jump on the bandwagon of being "concerned about the troops." No one asked Jack Murtha, who has claimed that he has visited Walter Reed almost continuously, why he never noticed these horrible conditions or ever said anything about them in his numerous appearances on these shows or in his day job. Therefore we will be blessed with more on the Walter Reed scandal and the obvious guilt of McChimpy Bushitler in personally conspiring to deny adequate treatment to the millions (yes millions) or Iraq war wounded. How heartless. That will be meme number two about the Iraq war, that it is the cause of the horrible conditions at Walter Reed, therefore we must withdraw redeploy now. Three of the big five Sunday shows explicitly list Walter Reed as a topic and it's clear from the guest list that all of the shows intend to touch on it and continue to augment and spread the new meme.
Besides pushing the anti-war agenda they will also try to make hay over the Libby verdict. Note that there isn't a Victoria Toensing, Byron York (more from NRO) nor any other qualified person as a guest to actually talk about the reality. Fox doesn't even include Charles Krauthammer on their panel. The closest they come is Bill Kristol, and he's not particularly informed or informative, just opinionated. Therefore we are in for more of the Joe and Valerie hagiography fantasy. I fully expect the news that Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones are being cast as Joe and Valerie in the recently announced Hollywood movie. The same shows that listed Walter Reed as a topic also list Libby and the line ups are equally "qualified" on the other shows to deliver the DBM Verdict on the verdict. I think they hope that after this the debate will be settled and the only question left will be whether Cheney is impeached, resigns, or dies first.
What's left to mention is what little is unique to each show.
NBC Meet The Press fires the opening shots (at least as scheduled here in Memphis) in the assault on the war based on the regional conference. They have the outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, who is our representative at the talks on Saturday (which may have actually started as it is 9 AM CST as I type this). I expect Lil Timmah to be in full on hostile hunch mode for this interview (no doubt via satellite) with a raft of skeptical questions and misleading premises. Khalizad has shown himself able to deal with these situations quite well, if not flamboyantly, so I don't expect Timmah to land any direct blows, but I think he's going to be more interested in setting up so many negative premises that Khalizad will only be able to directly address a few, thus leaving others unchallenged as "proof" of Lil Timmah's point of view. The rest of the show is dedicated to a rogues gallery of reliable propaganda merchants. Michael Duffy is the author of Time's cover story, listed in the table of contents as Cheney in Twilight, with a title in the online version of the article of Cheney's Fall From Grace and with a cover headline of The Verdict on Cheney (yep, that's the color they used). Gee, I wonder why he's on this week? Ted Koppel is also on and he's promoting his upcoming Discovery Channel special, Our Children's Children's War (premiere 3/11), where he examines the horror that is McChimpy Bushitler's war on terror and how we must not only redeploy from Iraq but somehow find a way to stop this madman's unending war (that's Bush's madness, not Osama's, read the WaPo review for more background). Okey dokey. That'll be right up there with the series that Ted did on Discovery on just how sweet and innocent the Iranians are and how unjust the "axis of evil" charge was. Hadn't heard of that one? Well, that's OK. The intelligentsia did and they have been parroting Ted's talking points ever since. Beschloss is a Clinton insider and loyalist, so we can listen to him for the Clintonista talking points on the subjects to be discussed and Dana Priest is the co-author of the Walter Reed scandal story, so be prepared to get the official DBM party line about the causes and assignment of guilt over this greatest of scandals ever. Can you say "impeachment?" I knew you could.
CBS Face The Nation turns it's half hour over to three vocal critics of the administration over the Walter Reed scandal and the war on terror in general. Dhimmicrat Chucky Schumer and RINO Snarlin' Arlen Specter have reliably been very specific in laying blame this week on the administration for not only the "never before seen" problems at the VA and the horrible abuses by the FBI of the Patriot Act (26 mistakes out of 50,000 uses of National Security letters) and they have been demanding immediate oversite hearings (read show trials), new restrictions and punishment for this gross violation of the civil rights of suspected terrorists. Claire McCaskill is along to emphasize the Walter Reed problems (and Bush's guilt) as the co-sponsor of legislation to improve conditions at Walter Reed. Never mind that it is slated for closure and that there's a new modern facility almost ready to replace it, let's reinforce the current failing bureaucracy at Walter Reed. No doubt she will subtly mention her co-sponsor Barack Obama fifty or sixty times.
Fox News Sunday breaks away from the pack to push the notion that Fred Thompson is destined to emerge as the great white hope of the Conservative movement. Fred himself will be on to discuss the topic. I like Fred and would likely support him over many others in the field, but I think the reason his candidacy is being pushed is that the DBM is deathly afraid that Rudy may be winning over the conservative base, despite their best efforts. Rudy will never win over the Buchannanites, Perotistas or the 100%ers, but the DBM is shocked that conservatives in general and evangelicals in particular are not marching en masse to burn Rudy at the stake. The unthinkable may be happening, conservatives actually being willing to "settle" for someone who isn't perfect and rally behind him, despite single issue differences. That must be stopped and a Fred Thompson candidacy may be their way to try to do that. To provide balance to Fred Thompson they trot out Maxine "the Crips and Bloods are my constituents" Waters. That tells you what they think of Fred Thompson's politics. But Maxine is the gift that keeps on giving. Unless Chris is an even worse moron than usual she can be counted on for some priceless gems that the DBM will promptly ignore. We have 3/4 of the regular panel, with Brit, Bill and Mara, but the role of Juan is being played by Nina Easton this week.
CNN Late Edition brings us back to Iraq and the regional conference with the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari. He is the Iraqi official who praised "Iran's constructive role in Iraq," though everyone leaves out his comments encouraging the constructive things while pointing to and condemning the negative things, like providing arms to insurgents and Al Qaeda alike. And then Biden's back and Wolfie's got him. Where's the no-doze? With Biden and Hagel likely candidates for their respective parties' presidential nominations dare I spell out the nightmare scenario? I think that if those two somehow managed to get the nominations that the suicide rate would provide proof that we must replace global warming with their egos as the greatest threat to life on Earth. Lindsey Graham is on and I'm afraid to watch and see which Lindsey shows up. If it's the Lindsey Graham from last weeks MTP then it will be fun. If the usual Lindsey Graham shows up, however, then it will be painful (and provide lots of sound bites). Since the topic is likely the legalisms surrounding the Patriot Act and the "scandal" at Walter Reed and not the surge I'm expecting evil Lindsey and not his good twin. Mike Huckabee's appearance may be CNN's opening salvo in the "who will drop out first" contest. Mike doesn't seem to be catching on much and I think they want to have him on one last time. The discussion of like minds consists of Schneider, Brazile and Frum. CNN can always count on all of them for the right quotes given the right questions. Wolfie will be conducting.
ABC This Week has the madman from Virginia and Viagra Bob. Webb was incoherent in appearances this week about his version of the cut and run redeployment benchmark legislation so expect very gentle handling from Little Georgie Steponallofus. Also expect little discussion of that, as it looks like it's already another failed initiative by the Dhimmicrats, and instead look for Georgie to fish for comments hostile to McChimpy Bushitler on the treatment of veterans. My bet is that Bob Dole will be on first or on tape so that he won't have a chance to respond to anything Jim Bowie Webb may say. Even if Dole follows Webb live or is on at the same time I have very little faith in him standing up for the administration and speaking truth to bureaucracy and the DBM. The roundtable has Torie Clarke, Fareed Zakaria, David Corn and George Will on to bash the administration in the usual ways. Corn is actually the only direct player in the Wilson/Plame affair to appear this week and I expect him to spin emphatically, with no fear of contradiction from anyone else on the panel. The administration has no friends on any panel ABC arranges. If someone were sympathetic to the Bush position on a given issue they simply wouldn't be invited that week.
Three of the four Saturday shows look like they'll provide the usual warm up for the Sunday shows, while Lil Timmah goes off on a tangent. The Beltway Boys provides the weeks recap of conventional wisdom from the ruling elite. First, Libby's guilty so everyone should stop questioning the DBM narrative about the "leak." Second, the anti-war base of the Dhimmicrat party aren't happy with how moderate the leadership of their party is (really, the nation's mother in law and Dingy Harry are being pushed as "moderates"). Finally they trot out the latest wingnut from the "Christian right" to snipe at Rudy. The hyenas in the DBM just can't believe that they can't eventually find some conservative to use to bring Rudy down and they'll keep trying till they do. Fox News Watch jumps on the "Libby is guilty so accept everything else the DBM has said" bandwagon while also wallowing in the Walter Reed scandal. Look for most of the time on these topics to be given over to Neal Gabler and (part timer) Jane Hall. The Journal Editorial Report takes a look at who Barack Obama really is. Many would assume that this will be a hostile profile, but I don't think that's JER's style. They will present real information, not spin and not only facts that might hurt him. They're interested in providing information others don't. I'll be interested to see if they can go beyond the facade that has been constructed by the DBM. They also tackle the Libby trial. I have less faith that they'll delve into the fundamental issues as they have done that before and they don't like repeating themselves, expecting their audience to be already informed on the real facts not the media spin. Instead they'll look at the practical and political results of the verdict and speculate about the future, particularly the impact of a Presidential pardon. CNBC's Tim Russert Show is promoting Suze Ormon's latest book on empowering women economically. No doubt her revelation that she is a 40 plus year old virgin will come up, but I'm betting the main opportunity for a sound bit will be if Tim can get into a discussion of the desirability of a woman becoming President. Who could he be thinking about?
So, Bush's failure in Iraq, betrayal of all veterans and obvious guilt in earth shaking conspiracies against innocent anti-war activists, both in and out of the CIA and State Department, are the order of the day, with a dash of '08 politics thrown in for good measure. Could this be the opening salvo in a formal campaign leading up to impeachment hearings? Watch for the "I" word to be used on at least a couple of the shows this week, most likely ABC by Webb, CBS by Schumer or Fox by Mad Maxine, amongst the guests, and from any of this crop of journalists, particularly Corn. It may be that we'll get dueling calls for impeachment, some focusing on Cheney for the "Libby cloud" and others on Bush for a laundry list of "high crimes and misdemeanors," starting with lying about WMD in Iraq.
We'll see if anything worthwhile comes out of this weeks line up.
This should be cross posted to my blog at Wizards.townhall.com later today. 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 valuable 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!
Mark Kilmer has posted his excellent preview of the Sunday shows over at Redstate.COM. Here is his summary from that preview:
Khalilzad (MTP) is an important interview, as could be Fred Thompson (FNS). Waters {FNS) is going to say what Waters does, as is Jim Webb (TW). I don't know what tack Dole (TW) will take, but we know what Specter and Schumer (FTN) will spout. I wonder if McCaskill (FTN) will babble incohrently.
Joe Biden vs. Lindsey Graham (LE) is one we've seen before in many forms. Maybe Huckabee (LE) can light a fire. It seems that all Joe Biden can do these days, campaign-wise, is to extinguish them.
I will try to post a link to his Sunday review when it is up, as well as a link to AB!'s Sunday thread.
LOL....please, take that 'stick' out of your stomach...you will feel much better.
I so agree with you...and watching Chrissy on Hairball when I can stomach it...he is all about Rudy..he FEARS Rudy.
Of course the other night it was all about Newt and his admission of the affair.
I would FEAR a Newt campaign...he is too McCainy for me.
The comments to the blog on CQ are also very informative. I wish every pundit would have this info before they start in on the "deplorable conditions at WR."
They don't want this information. You and I and many others here now have it, so it is quite available. They do not want any information that distracts from the meme or the action line.
I have now sent them the article and I have sent them things in the past. Those inconvenient facts never make it on the shows nor do the questions they suggest.
I do not suppose this guy has any of the spirit of his almost namesake Patrick Henry?
You are so right!
Great job again P your stuff just gets better and better every week.
That was really good every now and then I man has a lucid moment.
Patrick McHenry is one of the bright stars in the Republican lineup nowadays.
The only show worth watching is on at 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 am.
I'll watch it, anyway, and thank you for your analyses of the farcical shows, so that I don't have to watch them.
Great job, Phss, as usual.
http://sigmundcarlandalfred.wordpress.com/2007/03/08/yeah-leftists-really-do-care-about-justice-just-like-pedophiles-care-about-children/
I found this link at The American Thinker: I think it has some GREAT reminders of the PAST with Hillary...and tying it to the Libby deal.
BTTT. Thanks for the ping Txsleuth!
Do you happen to know when the Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace program is rebroadcast on Fox channel ... the all fires all day has pre empted the 6pm showing. Is there another tonight (sunday night)?
Fox News Sunday rebroadcast on Fox cable has been bumped for the live fire coverage. I haven't heard if they'll show it later.
They do offer a "podcast" (not sure if it's video or audio only) on their web site. the downside is it's not set up as a normal MP3 file nor as a normal podcast accessible via iTunes. You have to use one of two third party programs you can download from their site.
They will usually post streaming video of the big interviews by about Tuesday on the FNS web site:
http://www.foxnews.com/fns/index.html
Thanks. I went there and found the transcript of the Thompson interview, but I kind of wanted to watch him deal with the host and the camera angles.
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