The whiteness and the male-ness of those Sunday morning political talk shows on various networks like Face the Nation (CBS) or Meet the Press (NBC) or This Week (ABC) isn’t exactly news. According to Media Matters’ analysis of ethnicity and gender of Sunday morning talk shows published earlier this year, between ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, and CNN, around 75% of the guests were male. The stats for white guests were even higher. So you would think that maybe they’d put some effort into diversifying their line up in response to the data, right?
Nope. Annie-Rose Strasser at Think Progress looked at the panels from all main Sunday talk shows today, and the results were disappointing and yet not at all surprising:
Between CNN, Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC this Sunday, there were no women or people of color featured as the main, solo interviews of the show. Even in the roundtable discussions that follow the featured interviews, the participants were unrepresentative: Eight women joined the roundtables, while 15 men were part of the conversation.
Of the 38 total guests between the one-on-one interviews and the roundtables, there were five people of color. None of the shows had on more than two women, or more than two non-white guests.
Of course “Up With Steve Kornacki” and the “Melissa Harris Perry Show” maintained their great track records for diversity. Still, it’s very disheartening to see just how difficult it is for bigger networks to follow suit. Let’s make MHP president of television?