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Response to Hugh Hewitt's blog post Novak Runs Over Huckabee.

Posted by Beowulf on Monday, November 26, 2007 8:05:45 PM

This is a response to Hugh Hewitt's blog post Novak Runs Over Huckabee.

I would have posted it on his blog but I got a little long...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mr. Hewitt, I've gotta say, IMHO, your attack in this post on Thompson speaks more of your ego than his viability as a candidate.

I've noticed that the main complaint of the punditocracy about Fred is that he isn't catering to YOU!

McCain and many of the others have decided that their "base" is the media, in one form or another, and have been catering to them, courting them and addressing their concerns instead of the peoples'.  Yes, you're "people" too, but you're also part of an elite that feel slighted when a candidate doesn't drop dead in an attempt to woo them. 

Please get over yourselves!

I read and enjoy your site daily, many times.  I don't recall any notable post by you examining Fred's positions on any of the subjects that he has put out detailed policy proposals on.   His reference to NRO on Sunday was to their editorial praise (easily found) for his willingness to put out explicit positions on a number of issues, something all of the other candidates are notably unwilling to do.

I think I've read most of your stuff on the candidates, so far as I can tell, and my best recollection is that you don't talk about their detailed proposals (if any).  Instead my impression is that you have mostly been concerned with the "beauty pageant" aspects of this unending horse race and not the substance.  You've talked about "the best" candidate for one position or another but I don't recall much actual discussion of why that should be, just your judgment.

I easily could be dead wrong and you may be able to cite hundreds of very detailed posts on those subjects, but the fact remains that it's not what I've taken away from your site.

I will continue to read your blog and columns as I find you genuinely insightful, but I think you made your mind up early and aren't about to budge from the investment that you've made in that commitment.  It's uncomfortably like how I perceive the MSM and Dhimmicrat's devotion to the proposition that we must lose in Iraq since it favors their own self interest.  A victorious Thompson would go against your own self interest so you buy into the MSM "narrative" about him.

I just don't buy it.

Know this, my preferred ticket this fall is Thompson/Romney, with Fred delegating to Mitt the role supposedly Clinton set up for the Goracle: reinventing government.  That's something Mitt has proven that he could run away with and actually accomplish miracles with a partner who truly supported him and who would be providing the guiding principles grounded in true conservatism.  I think it would guarantee 16 years of a Republican executive and a real chance to rescue this country from the perils we now face.  And that's about the time it would take.
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Preview and Analysis for Weekend of November 24th and 25th, 2007

Posted by Beowulf on Saturday, November 24, 2007 7:26:10 PM


Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:

NBC's "Meet the Press"
  • Ronald Brownstein
  • Mary Matalin
  • Mike Murphy
  • Bob Shrum
  • James Carville

Fox News Sunday

  • Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.
  • Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
  • Sen Carl Levin, D-Mich
 CBS's "Face the Nation"
  • Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni
CNN "Late Edition"
  • Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.
  • Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi

ABC's "This Week"

  • Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
  • Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M.

There is a clear meme emerging, in my eyes, with this weeks programs.  The left is getting darned tired of all this talk of "success" in Iraq and they're not going to stand for it anymore!  The MSM is going to try to reassert their control over the narrative and promote a litany of doom and despair if it kills us!

NBC Meet The Press goes a second week without any headline newsmakers as guests.  Is Lil Timmah being punished for daring to question the Hildabeast?  Is team Clinton planning a trip for him to Ft. Marcy Park?  Seriously, two weeks in a row with nothing but pundits?  If this stretches to a third week this could not only be the 60th year for MTP, but also the last.  And the lineup they chose!  Carville is in Hillary's pocket while his wife is a Fredhead.  Murphy is insisting that all of the conventional wisdom, at least on the Republican side, isn't necessarily so wise and Shrum is simply a loser (but a consistent one).  Talk about your empty calories, this weeks show is the intellectual equivalent of not just potato chips but bad soggy potato chips!*

CBS Face The Nation brings us the main "newsmaker" that the MSM wants us to listen to.  Retired (Clintonian) General Zinni is one of the MSM favorites because he's always good for a bad quote about Bush and the GWOT.  Even when he was in uniform he would diss the Commander in Chief at the drop of a hat.  Now that he's retired he makes his living pushing BDS and promoting the Clintonian world view.  Recently he participated in the creation of a think tank "white paper" that says we've got this whole global war on terror thing wrong.  Our problem isn't that the islamic jihadists are out to kill us.  No, our problem is that we're fighting back.  If we'd only roll over and play dead everything would be fine.  Okay, we'd have to roll over and actually die, but isn't that better than actually fighting to save ourselves?  Everyone would love us if we'd just surrender already.  Oh, and give them more money.  We really need to give other countries and organizations like the UN more money for them to love us.  This may very well be Zinni's official try out as Hillary's vice president, as well.  Sources on both the left and right of the punditocracy have floated this idea recently and, voila, he gets face time.  Who says that CBS is ignorant and doesn't pay attention to what's being talked about on the net?

On Fox News Sunday Chris Wallace will sharpen the Fox knives for Fred Dalton Thompson.  Fox News has made it abundantly clear that they are backing Rudy and Hillary and that people like Thompson have no business screwing up their carefully constructed (and funded) narrative.  Rupert wrote the headlines six months ago and doesn't want to have to change things so watch for a very hostile interview.  Unlike Bill Clinton's histrionics, however, Fred has demonstrated that he won't let an interviewer drive the conversation where they want to take it, but he does it calmly.  Last week on ABC This Week Fred bounced incurious George Steponallofus all over the set, all the time with a smile and calm, certain and assured manner.  Somehow I don't think Mike Wallace's boy will fair much better.  Following the attempted mugging of Fred FNS moves on to the new meme of doom and gloom in the GWOT and particularly in Iraq.  Wise old Granpa Carl Levin, Senator from Michiganistan, will give the Dhimmicrats official declaration of defeat.  Watch what phrases and catchwords he shares with General Zinni.  That will be the drum beat that will be hammered home by every liberal on the planet.  Normally I would expect the "good" Lindsey Graham to show up under these circumstances, but Senator Graham has been stuck on stupid in his condemnation of the Maliki government and the passage of the national reconciliation laws as the end all and be all of his definition of success in Iraq.  He's just back from spending some time over there so maybe, just maybe, he's learned something.  We'll see.  The roundtable is a modified "classic" line up with Brit, Bill, Mara and Juan.  Juan's latest NPR story is about good news for Bush, so maybe he won't need to be smacked down so much this weekend.  Brit, on the other hand, has been so outspoken in his disdain for Fred Thompson that I think he may break with convention and actually comment during the roundtable on Fred's interview on the show.  If so expect some heavy negative spin.  I wonder if Fred insulted Brit's wife or something?

CNN Late Edition Brings us this months MSM favorite Republican, Mike Huckabee.  He's surging in Iowa through a combination of a grass roots push in the evangelical community and a spate of very favorable coverage in the drive by media.  He's decidedly on the wrong side of most issues that Republican voters seem to care about, with the notable exception of Abortion.  He's particularly vulnerable on the issue of illegal immigration, given his history as Governor in his home state of ArkanTyson.  His campaign's breathless declarations to the contrary only serve to highlight the problem and I think that will start to be reflected in the polls.  CNN moves to the meme of the week with a combination of Ayad Allawi, once and perhaps future Iraqi Prime Minister, and the respective mouth "peaces" for Israel and the PLO.  The upcoming Annapolis "peace in our time" conference is it's own best evidence for a failed foreign policy, so Wolfe won't need to spin much on that one.  Allawi is "damaged goods," being identified by the left as a CIA man, so they don't want him back in power (well, maybe they might, given the current make up of the CIA) but he'll definitely come in handy for complaining about Maliki and the failed US policy in Iraq.  And Ron Brownstein is on board to declare that all of the problems in the world are the fault of McChimpy Bushitler and that he invented both partisanship and failure.  I expect there to be a roundtable of CNN talking heads, likely declaring that "Hillary's back" and in charge and that Fred Thompson still just doesn't float their boat at all, but that there appears to be alot for them to like in the Huckster, except for those religion and abortion things.

ABC This Week gives us the resurrected John McCain, the once and future front runner in their eyes.  The MSM wants someone to bring down Giuliani a peg and they just can't see themselves embracing Romney or Thompson and Huckabee is the designated Romney underminer (the rest of the Republican field doesn't exist in their eyes).  I expect a good bit of hostility towards McCain's unwillingness to admit defeat in Iraq but lots of praise for his willingness to criticize the Bush policy.  That point will be reinforced when they give Bill Richardson an "opportunity to respond" to whatever McCain might say.  Funny, I don't recall them ever inviting a Republican on with an opportunity to respond to some lefty loon.  If Richardson matches phrasing with Zinni and the rest we'll know that there actually was a fax on this meme.  They've been looking for a new lexiconographer for awhile now.  Maybe they've found them.  The other possibility is that they're just reading it on Kos or Hufpo.  Andrew Sullivan is on the roundtable segment to diss team Hillary and the Rudytoots equally, while Cokie is likely on simply to bash all of the Republicans except Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee, whom she approves of.  Go figure.  That pairing does not bode well for Hukcabee or his followers.  Jon Karl is on to carry the anti-war water and George Will is on just to bash all other conservatives in general.

The Saturday shows have settled into their new time slots, but I'm not settled in to watching them yet.  I did catch the final couple of minutes of Tim Russert's Show on MSNBC where he was talking with Howard Kurtz about his latest book, this one on the demise of the network evening news shows.  What little I saw was talk about the blogs and how they've ruined the gig by daring to point out the bias and errors of the once infallible anchors.  That was also the theme for the entire program on Fox News Watch.  Neil was replaced by a lefty from Huffington Post, Jane by a Fox blond info babe (Lonnie Anderson type eye candy) and Cal by a guy from NRO.  Jim and the host stayed in place as the "old media" part of the discussion.  They spent almost half the show explaining what a blog is.  That tells you what they think the intelligence level of their audience is.  The Beltway Boys was supposed to cover "success in Iraq" and the lack of recognition of it by the Dhimmicrats, along with a discussion of Obama's "mistake" of actually talking about his youthful drug use (the mistake was letting it be captured on tape, since he'd already written about it in his book).  I'll see if I can bring myself to watch the re-run late tonight or first thing tomorrow.  The Journal Editorial Report goes off into strange territory for them, the recent news about "superbug" germs causing problems in several communities around the country.  Not exactly the usual type of topic for this show.  Do you suppose Rupert is already beginning to affect content and editorial interests at the Wall Street Journal?
 

So, in sum, it's a combination this week of the horse race and loudly proclaiming Bush's "miserable failures" in the GWOT, particularly Iraq.  The horse race is still very much on and finally beginning to catch the attention of the public.  The media has settled on who they are backing and who they want to defeat and will be spinning frantically to try to insure their desired outcome in the various races.  They are in danger of losing control of the narrative in Iraq so they want to turn to other aspects of the war on terror to push back against a growing perception that we might actually be winning.  They can't have that.

We'll see how Fred does with Wallace.  Those of us either for Fred or not committed yet to some other candidate seemed to think he did really well last week with incurious George, but his critics (and they are many, particularly in the MSM) are still sticking to their prewritten narrative.  And with two weeks of no actual politicians, either presidential candidates, Senators, members of Congress or otherwise, is Russert being boycotted?  Has team Clinton put out the word that appearing on MTP (except designated surrogates) will earn the wrath of the President in waiting?  I have to believe that if that were the case that the word would have gotten out somehow, but you never know.

This should be cross posted to my blog at Wizards.townhall.com later today.

This thread 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.

Politico.COM has their Sunday Talk Show Tip Sheet

* this is related to one of Niven's Laws - the actual law is "Never waste calories," which he explains by saying "Potato chips, candy, whipped cream, or a hot fudge sundae may involve you, your dietician, your wardrobe, and other factors. But FP's Law implies: Don't eat soggy potato chips, or cheap candy, or fake whipped cream, or an inferior hot fudge sundae."  And Niven makes a mean Irish Coffee so I think he knows where of he speaks.
 

Show by Show Preview

Below are the topics and guests announced for these programs, along with my take on the "memes" that the shows are trying to push.  With each guest's name are a series of links that I found in a web search that helped me get a handle on who they are and what their likely positions will be when they are interviewed.

Saturday Shows For November 24, 2007

The Beltway Boys (Mort Kondrake, Fred Barnes)

  • Meme:
    • This is the last time you'll hear anything about "success in Iraq" - the narrative is now about failure in the GWOT - you heard it here first
    • Obama is toast - he must not be allowed to overtake the Hildabeast - it is imperative
  • Topics:
    • Fresh evidence the U.S. troop surge in Iraq is working. Will Democrats change their tune?
    • Barack Obama talks about his past drug use with a bunch of high school kids. Will this help or hurt his campaign?
  • Beltway Boys contact information beltway@foxnews.com
  • The program airs on FOX News Channel Saturdays at 2 and 11:30 p.m. ET and Sunday at 6:30 a.m.

Tim Russert's Show On MSNBC (Tim Russert)

  • Meme:
    • no doubt somebody selling some book that makes Bush look bad (still no listing for this week, and the show's been over for hours)
  • Topics:
  • Guests
  • CNBC's Tim Russert Show airs Saturday at 7pm, 10pm & 1am ET

Fox News Watch (Eric Burns)

  • Meme:
    • We think they're complete frauds and prove it week after week - do you suppose they've noticed?
  • Topics:
    • SPECIAL EDITION: The brave new world of blogs
      • How powerful are they? Are they substance or just vapor?
      • The top five most influential blogs
  • The program airs on FOX News Channel Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. ET
  • Fox News Watch contact information Newswatch@foxnews.com

Journal Editorial Report (Paul Gigot) - FNC show page

  • Meme:
    • Perspective is everything
  • Topics:
    • Opinion Journal web page: Germ Expansionism
      • "Superbugs" and how to develop more antibiotics to beat them
      • The solution for airline travel woes
      • Rock 'n' roll's new capitalists
    • Fox News Channel web page
      • Attack of the superbugs: Just how serious a public health threat are infections like MRSA?
      • Spending your Thanksgiving weekend at the airport? Why are there so many delays and what can be done about them?
  • Guests
    • Dr. Scott Gottlieb
  • Journal Editorial Report (at Fox News) contact information - jer@foxnews.com
  • The program is from The Wall Street Journal and airs on FNC Saturday at 11 p.m. and again Sunday at 6 a.m. ET

NBC Meet The Press (Tim Russert)

CBS Face The Nation (Bob Schieffer)

Fox News Sunday (Chris Wallace)

CNN Late Edition (Wolf Blitzer)

ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos)

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Anita's Media Nuggets for November 18th, 2007

Posted by Beowulf on Sunday, November 18, 2007 11:33:24 AM
Posted by anita on the Sunday Morning Talk Show Thread 18 November 2007

Here 's this sunday's Media Nuggets

###### Busted! - AP's lies -> on Military desertion. Their reporting is slanted, incomplete, selective, and inaccurate and has a demoralizing effect on the public which in turn makes it difficult to recruit an army so that we can defend ourselves.  Is it any wonder what the nation has stopped buying newspapers and turned off the TV?

###### Journalism Professor(!)'s Column Canned -> because of Plagiarism.

###### MSM's Refusal to hold U.N Accountable! 866 Violations of Safety Requirements so far. Bloomberg threatens halting visits to U.N. headquarters by School Children.

###### Are Reporters Doomed? -> Guardian Editor's Fear. Citizen journalism is here to stay. "The reporter will struggle to be heard over the cacophony of a 1000 other voices. Politicians will no longer fear us. And if that day comes, I'm afraid it really will be the end of the reporter."

###### Al-Jazeera 'Balanced' -> says NYTimes Columnist. No surprise there. The writer who exposes it is Rick Moran - brother of ABC's Terry Moran.

###### Ombudsman Scolds NYTimes! for not banning analyst who lied to investors.

###### Dan Rather interviewed, Saddam died! Now, Castro rebukes Rather in Cuba.

###### Low Death Toll Is News, too says Politico's Richard Benedetto.

###### Friendly Fire in the WH! -> WH Press Corpse, that is. Fight was about whether they 're stenographers or reporters (From accusations like they're 'an extension of the Clinton spin machine' to its 'meekness' in covering the Bush presidency).

###### UnReported Poll by MSM 75% of Americans don't care about Hollywood writers strike.

###### USA Today to Cut 45 Newsroom Jobs, says revenue has not kept pace. Free papers to Hotel rooms to show bogus circulation #s have consequences too.

###### Paging MSM! - WashPost Kitchen Closed! -> because of HEALTH CODE VIOLATIONS.

###### CNN & "Planet In Peril" -> Do as we say, Not as we do.

###### Rove & Markos in Newsweek -> Two peas in a pod.

B u z z .......

*** U.S. Navy launches -> new online TV network.

*** Victor Davis Hanson received the National Humanities Medal from President Bush.

*** President & Mrs. Bush will be interviewed by ABC's Charlie Gibson @ Camp David on Tuesday to be aired on ABC World News Nightly.

*** Republican Candidates REFUSED to appear on December 4 Iowa Republican debate by Fox, citing "scheduling conflicts" so it got cancelled. (Actions & Consequences).

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Preview and Analysis for Weekend of November 17th and 18th, 2007

Posted by Beowulf on Sunday, November 18, 2007 11:30:31 AM


Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:

NBC's "Meet the Press"
  • Ronald Brownstein, LA Times
  • E.J. Dionne, the Washington Post
  • Gwen Ifill, PBS
  • Byron York, the National Review
  • Chuck Todd, NBC News

CBS's "Face the Nation"

  • Presidential candidate former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C)
  • Jeanne Cummings, Politico

Fox News Sunday

  • Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-AR
  • Defense attorney Billy Martin
 CNN "Late Edition"
  • Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda
  • Presidential candidate former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C)

ABC's "This Week"

  • Presidential candidate former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.)
  • Author Kayce Freed Jennings

This week Wolfe Blitzer played the anti-Russert and restored the veneer of Hillary's inevitability claim in the debate by carefully shielding her from tough questions and turning on her "mean" rivals.  Now the MSM is free to concentrate on bringing down those they truly want to eliminate from the playing field to leave things clear for their "anointed ones."  The MSM have grown used to their position as the true constituency of the Washington politicians and they wanted to remind everyone of their power.  I feel, for example, that Fred Thompson's public statements that he refused to run a campaign by their rules singled him out for particular scorn by the ruling elites in the MSM.  They quickly constructed a narrative and have been merciless in spinning every news item to fit it.  On many of the other candidates the narrative is shifting as the competing drives for the desired outcome and the need to keep the interest of the viewers change in importance, thus the last two weeks for Her Thighness and the seemingly contrarian rise of Huckabee in the Republican contest.   But the powers that think they are don't want these trends to go too far and this week they dialed it back a bit to try to restore their carefully constructed "status quo" narrative.

NBC Meet The Press and Tim Russert take a breather after the back to back to back appearances of Obama, Thompson and Dodd (plus an appearance by Colbert to round things out) and the "notorious" performance by Russert at the Democrat debate (the right wing cad!).  Instead of a big name newsmaker they offer up an extended talking head roundtable to do a "state of the campaigns" round up.  If you take a look at the political leanings of the assembled media mavens you get a pretty good cross section of the MSM (5 left and 1 center slightly right).  Perhaps appropriately they are also celebrating the 60th anniversary of the show.  Sixty years of left of center bias.  May their era come to a swift close.

In our area CBS Face The Nation is up next and old Bob brings us the first of two appearances by the silky pony himself, John Edwards.  The amount of pandering this monster is doing to the bigotry of the hard left is staggering.  What's even more remarkable is that there apparently seems to be universal disdain for him from those he seeks to cater to.  Every once in a while there is clear evidence of a benevolent God.

Next for us in Memphis is Fox News Sunday, bringing us the (presumed) glory that is Mike Huckabee, he that the MSM seems to have been so enamored of the last few weeks.  There are plenty here on FR who honestly support and promote the ex-Governor or Arkansas.  There are also plenty of folks, here and elsewhere, who have serious doubts about significant parts of his worldview, not least of which are his views of limited government, taxation, federalism and several other issues important to me on principle.  I will say here that I understand the surface appeal of Huckabee to those here who support him.  I also emphatically state that I will actively support him over ANY of the potential Dhimmicrat nominees, as I will support Rudy, Romney or just about any of the other Republicans (except moonbat Ron Paul), however (you knew there was a "however") I am conceerned by some of the things I have found out about his background and worldview.  I'll be interested to see if his supporters address those questions/

CNN Late Edition is next in our market and they appear to be abandoning their "no one from the US" theme for at least half of this week's headline with only John "silk pony" Edwards and the PM of Japan on their advertised lineup.  I guess one could argue that a trial lawyer isn't strictly speaking an American, but then one could also argue that a trial lawyer isn't a member of the human species... but I won't go there (for now).  The session with the Japanese PM seems intent on proving that relations between the US and Japan are on the skids, but I have a feeling that isn't even remotely related to reality.  Then, of course, they move on to the viability of John Edwards as a presidential candidate.  Do I detect a them here?

This week marks a likely break in my format for this thread.  Life appears to be increasingly interfering with my ability to post this before the Saturday shows air, particularly with the seemingly random moves of these shows to earlier times.  More than that I have grown less and less enamored of these shows, with the noted exception of the Journal Editorial Report.  We'll see if I cover the rest of them in the future.  Having said that, here's the assessment of the Saturday shows (long past) for this week.  The Beltway Boys concentrated on this weeks theme of Hillary as the "comeback kid 2."  I'm sorry, I should have included a barf alert in that comment.  Tim Russert's Show on MSNBC did provide a preview of this weeks Meet The Press (while pimping for not one but two books) with authors who both condemn partisanship and imply (or outright state) that it was invented by George W. Bush.  Fox News Watch emphasizes the failings of these programs with some of the most mindless and trivial pabulum when they should be covering the momentous collapse of their profession (shhh... don't tell them... maybe they haven't noticed).  The aforementioned Journal Editorial Report has an interesting high end CEO counterpoint to the MSM darling Warren Buffet along with discussions of the issue of illegal aliens and drivers licenses as well as notice of the Goracles cashing in by selling out.  Gee, actual analysis of issues that are significant to the furtherance of human civilization.  What a concept!

I'm obviously well behind this week (so what's new?) and playing catch up.  I feel that this week is a conscious attempt by the powers that (want to) be (or think they already are) in the MSM to move back to their preferred narrative of Hillary as the inevitable nominee and eventual President.  I also feel that this week may mark a tipping point in the perception of the ability of the old media to dictate the narrative.  That means that I'm particularly interested in the narrative that comes out of this weekends shows, not only within the DBM but also the conclusions of the blogosphere.  Are we going to fall in line with the preferred perceptions of 30 rock, the Kosaks and their ilk or will we define a different and more persuasive "narrative" that will take hold?  This weekend has the potential for rearranging the conventional wisdom of this coming election.  Which reality will prevail, the one being promoted by the MSM or the real reality?

This should be cross posted to my blog at Wizards.townhall.com later today.

This thread 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.

Politico.COM has their Sunday Talk Show Tip Sheet

Show by Show Preview

Below are the topics and guests announced for these programs, along with my take on the "memes" that the shows are trying to push.  With each guest's name are a series of links that I found in a web search that helped me get a handle on who they are and what their likely positions will be when they are interviewed.

Saturday Shows For

The Beltway Boys (Mort Kondrake, Fred Barnes)

  • Meme:
    • She's back!  OK, maybe that's an exaggeration and she just didn't screw up as bad as last time... but she showed up!
    • Wow, what a concept!  The Republican candidates actually noticed that the people are concerned about illegal immigration!  Will wonders never cease?
  • Topics:
    • Hillary Clinton faces another round of attacks from her Democratic rivals — how did she do this time around?
    • The Republican presidential race gets feisty over immigration issue
  • Beltway Boys contact information beltway@foxnews.com
  • The program airs on FOX News Channel Saturdays 2 pm and 11:30 pm ET and Sundays 6:30 am ET (Note - this appears to be a permanent new time slot)

Tim Russert's Show On MSNBC (Tim Russert)

Fox News Watch (Eric Burns)

  • Meme:
    • "The questions get tougher?"  Not on CNN, at least not for Hillary!  What a joke!
    • OK, they're seriously asking with (radical secular humanist atheist) reporters are critical of something the Pope does (notice, they didn't use caps)
    • Oh, goody!  O. J. Simpson is back in court! (endless tabloid barf alert!)
  • Topics:
    • Campaign Coverage: The questions get tougher
    • Coming to America: Why are the media already critical of the pope's upcoming trip to the U.S.?
    • O.J.'s Courtroom Sequel: What will the media make of it?
  • The program airs on FOX News Channel Saturdays at 2:30 pm ET (Note - this appears to be a permanent new time slot)
  • Fox News Watch contact information Newswatch@foxnews.com

Journal Editorial Report (Paul Gigot) - FNC show page

  • Meme:
    • No, greed is NOT good, but enlightened self interest is.
    • OK, what part of "they're illegal" can't you understand?
    • The Goracle cashes in... big time!
  • Topics:
    • Opinion Journal web page: License to Drive
      • An interview with the CEO of Cypress Semiconductor on taxes, entrepreneurship and U.S. competitiveness
      • A debate on licenses for illegal aliens
      • Al Gore takes Silicon Valley.
    • Fox News Channel web page
      • Billionaire Warren Buffett says Congress should raise his taxes. But are there costs to soaking the rich?
      • Al Gore's new gig: Is he a venture capitalist or Washington lobbyist?
  • Guests
  • Journal Editorial Report (at Fox News) contact information - jer@foxnews.com
  • The program is from The Wall Street Journal and airs on FNC Saturday at 11 pm and Sunday at 6 am ET

NBC Meet The Press (Tim Russert)

CBS Face The Nation (Bob Schieffer)

Just a comment about CBS FTN's web site - could they be any more minimal?  What, do they pay their web folks by the word?  Maybe it's by the letter since they abbreviated 2008.  Goodness!

Fox News Sunday (Chris Wallace)

CNN Late Edition (Wolf Blitzer)