Tuesday, December 29, 2009

oh that "liberal media"

Most frequent ‘Meet the Press’ guest in 2009: Newt Gingrich.

On Sunday, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich was on NBC’s “Meet the Press” where he said he suspected that “every Republican running in ‘10 and
again in ‘12 will run on an absolute pledge to repeal” the health care reform legislation. The Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen points out that Gingrich has been the show’s most frequent guest in the past year:

[Sunday]was Gingrich’s fifth appearance on “MTP” just this year. In fact, Newt Gingrich, despite not having held any position in government for over a decade, was the single most frequent guest on “Meet the Press” in 2009 of any political figure in the United States. Literally.

From March to December, Gingrich appeared on “MTP,” on average, every other month. No one else in American politics was on the show this often. [...]

Keep in mind, “Meet the Press” didn’t have the actual Speaker of the House on at all this year. It also featured zero appearances from all of the other living former House Speakers (Hastert, Wright, Foley) combined.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has also appeared on more than a dozen Sunday talk shows this year even though he “is not president, he chairs no Senate committees, he represents two percent of the U.S. population, he lacks a strong constituency even among his own party.”


(Think Progress)