• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Why The Same Cast of Characters for Sunday Talk Shows

M

Mark Giardina

Not that I am a regular viewer to the Sunday morning national TV talk programs, but when I do watch them I’ve noticed that it seems the same guests are always on.

Example: Senators Charles Schumer, Lindsey Graham, John McCain.

Now I know that the hosts do not book the guests, but you can’t tell me there are not other lawmakers in DC that can be featured on these programs besides the three that I've mentioned.
 
There are a lot of others. Last week, This Week had a Democratic Senator Jack Reed from Delaware to give the counterpoint to uh...John McCain, who lead with the Republican viewpoint. I had never seen Reed Before They often have unknown (to me) Senators and Congress people on for the interview, or to be on the panel.

But they do tend to repeat many of the same people. It may be as simple as - some politicians chose not to make themselves available to the Sunday shows. You have to be on top of your game to look good on those shows. Reed, for example, didn't come off as particularly articulate.
 
Lkeller said:
There are a lot of others. Last week, This Week had a Democratic Senator Jack Reed from Delaware to give the counterpoint to uh...John McCain, who lead with the Republican viewpoint. I had never seen Reed Before They often have unknown (to me) Senators and Congress people on for the interview, or to be on the panel.

But they do tend to repeat many of the same people. It may be as simple as - some politicians chose not to make themselves available to the Sunday shows. You have to be on top of your game to look good on those shows. Reed, for example, didn't come off as particularly articulate.
Click to expand...

You also have to have been around for awhile and have name recognition nationwide. Being a committee chairman or ranking minority member is also a factor. McCain was already well-known before his 2008 Presidential run (both for good reasons and bad). Jack Reed is from Rhode Island, not Delaware, but is a relative unknown outside of RI, despite serving in Congress for 22 years, the last 16 in the Senate.
 
It's hard to believe that out of 100 United States Senators that only a handful either want to or do appear on these Sunday morning programs.

I live in New York State and God knows we (New Yorkers) get more than our fair share of Chuck Schumer appearing either on local TV or in the newspapers on a regular basis. ::)
 
Another factor is the large number of senators and representatives who are not available on Sunday morning because they have gone back to their states. That's good new and bad news. It is good that they go home and mix-and-mingle with constituents. Unfortunately a lot of that time and energy is focused on mix-and-mingle ONLY with campaign big-time donors.

It is bad that they go home because legend has it they used to stay in Washington and socialize with each other. Parties. Poker games. Play some golf. Get to know other members of congress. Work on some ways they could craft a settlement on issues and pass some good legislation.

So part of the answer to the question that is our topic: What you see on Sunday morning tend to be the folks who are in town regularly.
 
Marco Rubio is quickly becoming a regular on Sunday shows since that keeps him in the news until he runs in 2016. There's no doubt in my mind that he will since he's already trekked to Iowa in the dead of winter to give a speech. No politician does that (especially one from Florida) unless he has an ulterior motive.
 
Mark_Giardina said:
It's hard to believe that out of 100 United States Senators that only a handful either want to or do appear on these Sunday morning programs.

I live in New York State and God knows we (New Yorkers) get more than our fair share of Chuck Schumer appearing either on local TV or in the newspapers on a regular basis. ::)
Click to expand...

I'm a New Yorker also. To paraphrase the late Buffalo native Tim Russert, "If it's Sunday, it's a Schumer press conference."
 
Two words: Lazy producers. It's a whole lot easier to say, "Calll McCain's office." than it is to look up senators or congressmen(women) who may actually have more credible knowledge on a particular subject.

I have no beef with McCain, but if the subject is taxes, the Chairman of House Ways and Means has more clout than McCain, but more often than not, McCain or Schumer, or one of the other "usual suspects" will appear. They give good sound bites and can be entertaining. A well-informed stiff is still a stiff. That said, there are more than five senators and congressmen who can be in the rotation.

Producers also know people will respond to familiar, media-savvy guests, so from a TV point of view it makes sense, if not always from a content point of view.
 
The old joke is that when it comes to some politicians, it all depends on who shoves the hardest and runs the fastest to get in front of the camera first.
 
Part of the "problem" is likely the high number of congresspersons who are newly elected. The average seniority of the Senate is 9.32 years in office. If you remove the ten most senior senators (which eliminates those elected before 1988), the average seniority is only 7.1 years.

There are 43 Senators who have yet to face a reelection. Many of them have never sponsored a meaningful bill that became law, which makes it hard for a producer to invite them. Think about it: If you want a Republican Senator to discuss Benghazi, are you going to invite Lindsay Graham or foreign relations committee member John Barasso?
 
buster2 said:
Two words: Lazy producers. It's a whole lot easier to say, "Calll McCain's office." than it is to look up senators or congressmen(women) who may actually have more credible knowledge on a particular subject.
Click to expand...

I have a feeling you do not get to be a producer of one of these Sunday Morning shows if you are a "lazy producer".

In watching TV shows that feature guests to be interviewed, there is a word that comes up that seems to be a buzz-word with the people doing talk tv, interview tv: Landing a guest with "star quality" is referred to as a "Get". I assume that word is a byproduct of staff meetings where some one says: " Can we get ____ ___ for this week?" When you see the look on the face of a TV interview program host when he/she anounces: "We have a real GET on today's program... ____ ____ has agreed to join us." When you see the look on the face... you get the idea the host is about to pee in his/her pants over this "get".

I reject your idea that the producers are lazy. We can discuss whether they have good judgement. We can discuss whether they have a bias problem or an agenda problem... but I cannot accept the idea that lazy people are simply slapping together what is easy... Sunday after Sunday.
 
I have yet to learn anything significant on a Sunday tawk show. They either preach to the choir or don't preach at all. Most are fond of saying nothing using a ton of words.
 
landtuna said:
I have yet to learn anything significant on a Sunday tawk show. They either preach to the choir or don't preach at all.
Click to expand...

They do perform one function that I find useful, attractive. They take a person who is going to say what you may have already read or heard that they said, and that person will say it on-air where you can hear them say it, not some reporter read what they said; you can see the expression on their face as they say it; you can hear how they roll their words as they say it. Then, the Moderators of the show, or others around the table challenge them, and you hear a response, and you not only hear the words of response, you see the facial expression, you hear how they roll their words. Maybe that's not useful to you.

I have spent a lifetime analyzing the spoken words of people; developing my "B. S. Detector".

I watch interviews with authors and the give-and-take of the q-and-a sessions on C-Span. We are not all built alike. My wife chooses not to stay in the same room while I watch the playback of the Sunday morning shows. She has no patience with the wordiness that I enjoy consuming.
 
When was the last time the U.S. Secretary of Transportation or the head of Amtrak* was interviewed on the Sunday talking head shows? I imagine infrastructure is a quite unsexy Beltway topic for those who don't read Don Phillips in Trains magazine or Wes Vernon in Railfan & Railroad, both of which I subscribe to.

*The current DOT head is Ray LaHood, at least until Obama's recently-tapped nominee (the mayor of Charlotte, NC) is confirmed. The current president of Amtrak is Joe Boardman, and Sen. Tom Carper, who unlike Jack Reed actually *is* from Delaware, is on the Amtrak board, IIRC.

ixnay
 
Rollo-Smokes said:
Mark_Giardina said:
It's hard to believe that out of 100 United States Senators that only a handful either want to or do appear on these Sunday morning programs.

I live in New York State and God knows we (New Yorkers) get more than our fair share of Chuck Schumer appearing either on local TV or in the newspapers on a regular basis. ::)
Click to expand...

I'm a New Yorker also. To paraphrase the late Buffalo native Tim Russert, "If it's Sunday, it's a Schumer press conference."
Click to expand...

God Bless Tim Russert. He hit the nail on the head with that comment.
 
There was a feature story about my new congressman in Atlanta's Sunday paper. There was a humorous side-note. When he arrived in Washington for his training events and getting-acquainted time, he found himself in conversation with young Joe Kennedy. Apparently they were enjoying the conversation. Then it came time to leave, walk out of that building out into the open and over to the Capitol building. It dawned of both of them that they did NOT want to be in a picture walking together. They left separtely.

It turns out my congressional district is ranked as the THIRD most Republican district in America. Though the newly elected congressman is conservative, he has to make every effort to never let daylight show to the right of him, lest someone decided they could jump into the primary next year and claim to be MORE conservative, MORE Republican than he is.

There are probably a lot of congressmen and senators who do not want to go on the Sunday Morning shows and face tough, tough questions where they might on the spur of the moment give an answer they could regret during the next election cycle, a question that lets another candidate squeeze in between them and the extreme right if Republican, or the extreme left if Democratic.

We can thank the media, Talk Radio in particular for making the people we elect to represent us scared of their own shadow.

  • On The FLIP Side of that:

While sitting at the doctor's office this afternoon I picked up Time Magazine... a recent issue where "Outstanding People" were featured... with the name and some notes from the person nominating them.

SENATOR TOM COBURN of Oklahoma was one of the featured "Outstanding People". And who nominated him? Some guy name Barak Obama. They showed up as freshmen senators a few years ago and immediately became friends. As families, they socialize together! Apparently both of them feel secure in presenting who they are.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom