Sunday Shutout: The Lack of Gender & Ethnic Diversity on the Sunday Morning Talk Shows

[RiverStone]

Not only are the Sunday morning talk shows on the broadcast networks dominated by conservative opinion and commentary, the four programs -- NBC's Meet the Press, ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, and Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday -- feature guest lists that are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male.

And the top-rated Sunday show -- Meet the Press -- shows the least diversity of all. The NBC program is the most male and nearly the most white (Face the Nation beats it out by 1 percentage point), and it has the highest proportion of white males to all other guests.

A breakdown of the guests who appeared on the Sunday shows in 2005 and 2006 shows that men dominate these shows. In fact, men outnumber women by a 4-to-1 ratio on average.

The divide is even starker when it comes to race/ethnicity: On average, there were nearly seven white guests for every guest of any other race/ethnicity. On Meet the Press and Face the Nation, there were nearly nine white guests for every guest of another race/ethnicity.

more:

http://mediamatters.org/SundayShowDiversity

[ixion]

1. not to mention cultural diversity

I'm a white, middle-aged male, and I have a difficult time believing these so-called pundits are even human, much less educated, and always far, far away from reality.

[Solo_in_MD]

2. These shows are no more immune to market pressure than AAR or newspapers

they are catering to their demographic.

[valerief]

4. Different gender/races might attract a different demographic. Just thinking. nt

[Solo_in_MD]

5. Perhaps, but all of the M$M is losing ground fast. Couric is not the only anchor in ratings trouble

and newspapers are cutting back like mad for the same reason. Most younger people and fair amount of us older ones are dumping the M$M for alternate sources.

[valerief]

6. Yeah, the M$M is designed for the backwash. nt

[valerief]

3. Wouldn't want to drive those white Republican males underground, now

would we?

Uh, we sure would!