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Preview and Analysis for Weekend of November 10th and 11th, 2007

Posted by Beowulf on Sunday, November 11, 2007 3:14:46 PM


Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:


NBC's "Meet the Press"
  • Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL

CBS's "Face the Nation"

  • Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-AR
  • Rep. Ron Paul, R-TX

Fox News Sunday

  • Gov. Bill Richardson, D-NM
  • Sen. John McCain, R-AZ
  • Amy Zantzinger, White House social secretary
 CNN "Late Edition"
  • Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage
  • Former UN Ambassador John Bolton
  • Sen. Joe Biden, D-DE
  • Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill, U.S. Army
  • Command Sgt. Maj. Neil Ciotola, U.S. Army

ABC's "This Week"

  • Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
  • Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT

The reboot of the campaign coverage continues as Team Clinton fails to stop the bleeding and Rudy's "good friend" Bernie resurfaces in the news with a fresh indictment.  All of a sudden candidates who couldn't beg, borrow or steal air time are getting invites for the Sunday shows.  Some who were long written off are rising from the dead and even the true kooks are being treated seriously.  In fact, the drive by media is warming up to all of the candidates... except for Fred.  There's just something the dinosaur media don't like about him.  Maybe it's because he's publicly said he's not going to play the game according to their rules?

Anyway, the (relative) approach of the Iowa Caucus voting generates a little more interest and they're beginning to take a more concerted look at the field.  Couple that with actual news that involves judgments a president is called on to make and there might even be some real opportunity to learn what kind of leaders these mooks might be.  Or not.  So far almost all of those involved, on both sides of the microphone and cameras, a living down to my lowest expectations.

Lil Timmah Russert on NBC Meet The Press Brings on Hillary's chief rival for their Meet The Candidates series.  Obama has been the chief beneficiary, at least rhetorically, of the troubles in Clintonland.  Even a gaffe like the campaign plane landing in the wrong city, something that could have become iconic and devastating for a struggling campaign, is merely laughed off.  Will Timmah be open and generous to the Illinois Senator or will he be intent on proving that he's not anti-Hillary by being just as tough on Obama?  Since I consider Barack Obama to be an intellectual light weight, and I think the press knows this, I expect the interview to be fairly friendly to him.  The media is interested in stretching out the suspense and building up rivals to the front runners is the best way to do that.  They're in the business of selling our eyeballs to their advertisers and holding the interest of viewers is critical to them.  Presidential elections are to news divisions the equivalent of retailers' Christmas selling season.

CBS Face The Nation squeezes in two Republicans (at least officially) into their half hour.  I think the pairing of Huckabee and Paul is intended to provide a favorable comparison for Huckabee.  It appears that this ex-governor of Arkansas is following his predecessor's trajectory in the media. I get the impression that he's working very hard at pleasing the media and considers them the most important constituency at this point in the campaign.  It will be interesting to me to see how Bob Scheiffer treats him.   Ron Paul, on the other hand, is simply bug house nuts and provides ample opportunity for the press to cover "interesting" stories.  Besides, he's even more anti-war than Dennis Kucinich.  What could possibly please a reporter more?

On Fox News Sunday we also have a twofer, this time with one presidential hopeful from each party.  Or could this be the first meeting of the media's presumed vice presidential candidates?  I doubt they'll be on together, though it's possible.  They do represent nearly opposite ends of the spectrum on thoughts about the war on terror and the use of America's military.  With Richardson tacking left and McCain tacking right it could get interesting, particularly if they are allowed to compare and contrast views on success in Iraq and how to handle Pakistan and Iran.  One thing I expect them to avoid is illegal immigration, where their ideas seems to be much more in tune, with each other and the President, but distinctly out of tune with the growing tide in the vast majority of the voting public.  The roundtable discussion, with Hume, Kristol, Liasson and Williams, is set to talk about the problems for the respective "front runners" in the presidential race along with the latest news from Pakistan.  I'm expecting at least one smack down of Juan and hopefully Brit and Bill will continue the tag team smack downs of the last couple of weeks.  They've been fun.

ABC This Week has Condi Rice on to get lambasted about the "abject failure" of Bush administration foreign policy.  Incurious George Steponallofus will no doubt provide a cornucopia of examples of where "things have gone wrong," no doubt emphasizing "failure" in Pakistan and avoiding, as much as is possible, any reference to success in Iraq.  One area I'll be interested in gauging is how Georgie casts the proposed Annapolis peace summit between Olmert and Fatah.  Too much criticism of that effort could be seen as playing into the hands of the pro-Israel neo-cons and the all powerful Israel lobby.  Moving on from Ms Rice Incurious George chats up Dhimmicrat presidential candidate Senator Chris Dodd.  Dodd is also the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee so expect him to pronounce the economy in total meltdown and tell us that we're all heading for new "Bushville" shantytowns as we lose our houses and jobs.  He'll probably have some choice words about the FISA legislation as defeating "amnesty" for the telcos is the hobby horse he's riding to win the hearts and minds of the nutroots crowd.  It should be painful to watch.  The "classic" roundtable, with Sam, Cokie and George (Will), might actually provide some dangerous rhetoric.  George Will has made some rather provocative statements that will warm the hearts of Code Pink and MoveOn.ORG over presidential war powers and the course he thinks Congress should take to "restore the Constitution."  I expect him to start sporting a Ron Paul button any day... right up until the time Al Qaeda sets off a nuke in his neighborhood.  There is a potential for fun if George and Sam pick back up their conflict over global warming, but I don't see anything in this weeks news to really spur that kind of discussion.  That is, unless they pick up on the hoax that caught Rush Limbaugh on his show on Thursday.

The Saturday shows are still on "odd" schedules and I missed all of Beltway Boys and Tim Russert's show and all but a few minutes of Fox News Watch.  The Beltway Boys seems to be all over the main meme of the weekend, the "troubles" of the GOP and Dhimmicrat frontrunners.  I am finding increasingly less reason to listen to these two whenever they are on the air.  My biggest complaint is that neither of them seem to be able to complete a coherent sentence without painful pauses to search for the word they want to use or to track down and skewer the latest random idea that has popped into their heads.  I've been unceasingly critical of Fox News Watch and it's abject failure to address the issue of media malfeasance that is supposedly their reason for being.  They certainly may have covered it (though I doubt it) but to not make this weeks revelations in the Al Dura trial in France (see here, here and here) in France the lead for their show is the final nail in the coffin of their credibility.  Tim Russert's Show on MSNBC continues the promotion from last weeks Meet The Press of Tom Brokaw's new book on the baby boomers and the "60s generation."  I never bought his formulation of my parent's age group as "The Greatest Generation."  After all, they gave us Korea and Vietnam and squandered my grandchildren's legacies with programs like Medicare and the quagmire of the "war on poverty."  But if he's trying to raise my own generation to the level of greatness he's simply delusional.  The Journal Editorial Report also concentrates on the "turmoil" in Pakistan.  With that crowd, however, I expect actual reasoned analysis, not hype and hysteria.  They also indicate that they  will discuss "accountability on Wall Street" and talk about the fact that some "CEOs get the boot" when they don't perform.  That could be a great and lengthy basis for a long "dorm room" type discourse.

So, for the dinosaur media this week is about a "newly competitive" campaign for the 2008 presidential nomination in both parties along with a "deteriorating situation" in the wider world, particularly Pakistan, which is part of the "umma" so near and dear to Osama Bin Laden's demonic little heart.  They get to trot out yet more Bush bashing non-entities as if they were seriously going to be the leader of the free world (is that a nullity yet?) while still pretending that this next election isn't primarily about the dynastic succession of the Evita of the north.  This is, in my humble opinion, the last gasp of the old media and their (long over) strangle hold on the "truth." 

So, where does that leave us?

Well, first, the DBM is beginning to question their own "narrative" for this election which they should take as a very bad sign.  Not necessarily good for us, but definitely bad for them.   Those previously "anointed" by the intelligentsia may not be the "sure things" that they've been trying to sell to us.  That means that the conventional wisdom for this election (big Dhimmicrat gains, Clinton redux, etc.) aren't such sure things after all.  I am a contrarian by nature (OJ was NOT proven guilty of murder, I still think that Saddam had WMD and that they were "moved somewhere else," etc.) and this type of development appeals to me on many levels.  Bottom line is that all of the "assumed wisdom" about this election is so much caca, as usual  the difference is that now everyone may be about to acknowledge that no one knows whats really going on.

Wow, what a concept!  This whole election thingie might actually be interesting.

Oh, one final thought.  Why is it that so much attention of the drive by media is devoted to the troubles in Pakistan, where no one has died at the hands of the government and no mention is made of the multiple murders of protestors in Venezuela and Iran by government forces this week?   Perhaps they don't like it when their allies come out looking badly?

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:
    • Wow! We thought this election cycle was already over and done with!  After all, we told you who would win months ago.  Never mind.
  • Topics:
    • Hillary's 'victim' defense backfires!
    • Giuliani's political headache
    • Bush is speaking French
  • Beltway Boys contact information beltway@foxnews.com
  • The program is Airing this weekend on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET and 11:30 p.m. ET, and Sunday at 6:30 a.m. ET

Tim Russert's Show On MSNBC (Tim Russert)

  • Meme:
    • As if 1/4 of last weeks Meet the Press wasn't enough, Lil Timmah now devotes a full hour to pimping Tom Borkaws new book!
  • Topics:
    • Tim talks with Tom Brokaw about his new book, “Boom! Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the 60's and Today.”
  • Guests
    • Tom Brokaw
  • CNBC's Tim Russert Show airs Saturday at 7pm, 10pm & 1am ET

Fox News Watch (Eric Burns)

  • Meme:
    • Wow! We thought this election cycle was already over and done with!  After all, we told you who would win months ago.  Never mind.
    • Oh, goody!  Something going wrong in the WOT to allow Neal to criticize McChimpy Bushitler again!  He was getting so depressed!
    • Straight question: why so much coverage of Pakistan and not word one about riots in Iran or Venezuela?
  • Topics:
    • Rudy Giuliani picks up a key endorsement
    • Hillary gets caught by the media when she claims 'sexism'
    • Chaos in Pakistan:
      • Are you getting the FULL story?
      • Are the media giving Bush enough credit?
  • The program airs on FOX News Channel Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. ET and Sundays at 2:30 a.m. ET
  • Fox News Watch contact information Newswatch@foxnews.com

Journal Editorial Report (Paul Gigot) - FNC show page

  • Meme:
    • Oh, goody!  Something going wrong in the WOT to allow the MSM to criticize McChimpy Bushitler again!  They were getting so depressed!
    • Straight question: why so much coverage of Pakistan and not word one about riots in Iran or Venezuela?
  • Topics:
    • Opinion Journal web page: Emergency and Accountability
      • Turmoil in a key U.S. antiterror ally:
        • A report from Pakistan
        • how should the U.S. respond to President Musharraf's "emergency" rule?
      • Accountability on Wall Street, as CEOs get the boot.
    • Fox News Channel web page
      • Pakistan in Chaos: We'll have a report from the ground
  • Guests
    • none listed
  • 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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