The death of the Sunday shows
By: Dylan Byers, Politico.com
April 21, 2014 07:03 PM EDT
The Sunday morning shows once occupied a sacred space in American politics.
Today, many influential Washington players can’t even remember the last time they watched.
The public affairs shows — “Meet the Press,” “Face the Nation” and “This Week” — used to set the agenda for the nation’s capital with their news-making interviews and immensely influential audience. Now the buzz around the shows is more likely to center on gossipy criticism about the hosts, notably “Meet the Press’s” David Gregory, whose fate has become an incessant subject of conversation, most recently in a Washington Post story on Monday. Meanwhile, fans complain about the recurrence of familiar guests — Sen. John McCain again? — who simply relay party talking points that often go unchallenged.
“For political junkies and those who just want to catch up, the Sunday shows still are relevant, but they’re not the signature events they once were,” Tom Brokaw, the NBC News veteran who briefly moderated “Meet the Press” in 2008, said in an interview. “I first appeared on ‘Meet the Press’ during Watergate, and it was a secular mass in Washington; the faithful never missed it.”
(More here. My wife still watches the Sunday morning news shows. The only time I watch them is when I bring my Sunday breakfast upstairs. What impresses — or depresses — me most is that the shows feature all the same players from a decade or more ago. No new faces, no new ideas, the same old shouting and interrupting. Then there's also the problem with the wholesale disregard of facts. Ho hum. It's just an old-fashioned circus with the clowns at center stage. — LP)
April 21, 2014 07:03 PM EDT
The Sunday morning shows once occupied a sacred space in American politics.
Today, many influential Washington players can’t even remember the last time they watched.
The public affairs shows — “Meet the Press,” “Face the Nation” and “This Week” — used to set the agenda for the nation’s capital with their news-making interviews and immensely influential audience. Now the buzz around the shows is more likely to center on gossipy criticism about the hosts, notably “Meet the Press’s” David Gregory, whose fate has become an incessant subject of conversation, most recently in a Washington Post story on Monday. Meanwhile, fans complain about the recurrence of familiar guests — Sen. John McCain again? — who simply relay party talking points that often go unchallenged.
“For political junkies and those who just want to catch up, the Sunday shows still are relevant, but they’re not the signature events they once were,” Tom Brokaw, the NBC News veteran who briefly moderated “Meet the Press” in 2008, said in an interview. “I first appeared on ‘Meet the Press’ during Watergate, and it was a secular mass in Washington; the faithful never missed it.”
(More here. My wife still watches the Sunday morning news shows. The only time I watch them is when I bring my Sunday breakfast upstairs. What impresses — or depresses — me most is that the shows feature all the same players from a decade or more ago. No new faces, no new ideas, the same old shouting and interrupting. Then there's also the problem with the wholesale disregard of facts. Ho hum. It's just an old-fashioned circus with the clowns at center stage. — LP)
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