Rampaging Hannityism/The latest from Benen: It’s getting very hard to believe that Steve Benen is even trying to be honest with his liberal readers.
Consider his latest ludicrous post about the demonic Sunday shows. Yesterday morning, before the shows aired, Steve was at it again. Warning: Some of what follows is inaccurate. The rest of it doesn’t make sense:
BENEN (5/8/11): A few months ago, the line-up for the Sunday morning public-affairs shows was especially egregious. The guest lists featured two Republican senators, three Republican House members, three likely Republican presidential candidates, and exactly zero Democrats from Congress or the Obama administration.Today, with the Sunday shows turning their attention to bin Laden’s demise and national security, the lineup isn’t quite as bad, but it’s close.
Once again, Steve referred to the Sunday shows of February xx; once again, he misstated the guest lists on that day’s programs. Surely, Steve must know by now that there were two Democratic officials on that day’s shows, including Jacob Lew, Obama’s budget director (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 4/19/11).
Whatever. The foolishness started when Benen complained about the guest lists for yesterday’s programs. The lineup wasn’t “quite as bad” as it was on that imaginary week when Dems got shut out 9-0. But yesterday’s lineup came “close,” Steve absurdly said.
To what extent did yesterday’s shows resemble a shut-out for Democrats? Please. On all five shows, a major Democratic official was the featured guest! Republicans also appeared, but they got second billing—and they got less air time. But so what? Steve simply played his readers for fools, as Sean and Rush have done for all these years.
If you read his comments, you will see that we liberals swallowed his bullshit whole, just like the ditto-heads have always done for Rush.
What were yesterday’s lineups like? Let’s go show by show:
State of the Union: In her first segment, Candy Crowley interviewed Tom Donilon, Obama’s national security adviser. In her second segment, she interviewed Republican senator Richard Lugar. Then, Crowley interviewed a NATO official. Her pundit panel was balanced—former Obama official Anita Dunn versus former Republican congressman Tom Davis.
Based on word counts, Donilon was on the air about twice as long as Lugar.
Face the Nation: In his opening segment, Bob Schieffer interviewed John Kerry, a well-known Democrat. In his second segment, he interviewed Donald Rumsfeld.
Based on word-counts, Kerry’s segment was about fifty percent longer than Rumsfeld’s.
This Week: In her opening segment, Christiane Amanpour interviewed Donilon. In her second segment, she interviewed the Pakistani ambassador. In her third segment, she spoke with a trio of ABC correspondents. In her final segment, she aired a short interview with Condoleezza Rice.
Based on ABC’s still-incomplete transcript and tapes, Donilon’s segment was much longer than the short segment with Rice.
Meet the Press: In David Gregory’s first segment, he interviewed Donilon. In his second segment, he did a shorter segment with three Republicans or former Bush officials—Giuliani, Hayden and Chertoff. His pundit panel was balanced.
Based on word counts, Donilon’s segment was about twenty percent longer than the segment with the three Republicans.
Fox News Sunday: In his opening segment, Chris Wallace interviewed Donilon. In his second segment, which was almost as long, he interviewed Dick Cheney.
His pundit panel was as balanced as it ever gets on this right-leaning Fox show.
Please note: On all five programs, the featured guest was a major Democratic official. Presumably, Donilon appeared on four of the shows because he was the official the White House made available. (Sunday shows don’t have subpoena power.) On all four programs, Donilon got more time than his Republican counterparts. On the fifth program, the Democrat Kerry opened the show and got more time than Rumsfeld.
That’s what happened yesterday—unless you get your “information” from Benen. In that case, you believe that yesterday’s lineups were almost as bad as they were on that imaginary Sunday when noDemocrats appeared. To help drive his mistreated readers’ fury, Benen posted this nonsense from Ben Armbruster:
ARMBRUSTER (5/6/11): Despite the fact that President Obama gave the order to take down bin Laden, only one Obama administration official will take part in this Sunday’s festivities. By contrast, there are 5 former Bush administration officials making appearances. In total, 7 Republicans are on the networks this Sunday versus 2 Democrats. Torture apologists have been arguing this week that Bush’s torture program is responsible for getting bin Laden. Conveniently, this Sunday, some of the Bush administration officials involved in authorizing it will get their chance to defend themselves.
Only one Obama administration official will appear! That “one official” was Donilon, the featured guest on four of the programs. (Benen said that Donilon would appear on three shows, even though the source to which he linked plainly listed all four.) In an effort to be fair, Benen added this:
BENEN: Now, the guest lists have expanded a bit since Armbruster wrote that on Friday, but the ratio is no better—by my count, nine Republicans from Congress or the Bush administration will be on this morning, as compared to three Democrats from Congress or the Obama administration.In other words, it’s a fairly typical Sunday—even after a major success story for a Democratic White House.
Truly, that’s pathetic.
Earth to liberals: Yesterday’s programs tilted Democratic—unless you’re reading the pitiful work of these ludicrous children. In that case, you got yourself whipped into a lather, as gullible followers of Sean and Rush have been whipped so many times in the past. (Be sure to read Steve’s comments.)
For years, we liberals laughed at the ditto-heads when they fell for this sort of crap.
Thanks to rube-running hacks like Steve, we’re the ditto-heads now!
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