Weekend Show *Preview* for 4/29 - 4/30 (not the live thread)

Network and Cable News Networks | 4/29/06 | Network and Cable News

[Phsstpok]

The main message is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.

ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos)

• Meme:
  • It's the oil companies fault
  • OK, if it's not the oil companies, then it's the incompetent Bush administration foreign policies
  • George Clooney is a serious and important voice on the international stage (can you say "presidential material?")
• Topics:
  • Oil, Iraq and foreign policy
    • Turmoil overseas is pinching American pocketbooks at the gas pumps. On Sunday, I'll speak with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to ask how the administration's foreign policy is effecting the unsteady worldwide oil markets.
    • What's the plan going forward in Iraq? Secretary Rice & Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise visit; can the fragile Iraqi government survive and when will U.S. soldiers come home?
  • The Oil Industry vs. Congress
    • Senator Chuck Schumer, D-Ny., debates former Senator turned oil industry spokesperson J. Bennett Johnston, D-La., over rising gas prices and who's to blame.
    • As the oil industry continues to see record profits, Schumer and others in Congress are feeling the heat at home.
    • Will the issue take a toll at the polls in November and what can Congress or the industry do to ease the pain at the pumps?
  • Voices segment:
    • Academy Award winner George Clooney spent a good portion of his week not in Hollywood but in Washington, bringing attention to the continuing genocide in Sudan. Clooney traveled to Darfur and released a video of his experience. He's also a featured speaker in the Rally Against Genocide taking place in Washington this weekend. He'll talk to "This Week" about his trip and what can be done to stop the killing.
• Guests
  • Secretary Condoleezza Rice
    • Did you know she visited about 60 countries this week?
  • Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY
    • It's a setup.  Chuck has got a compliant Big Oil lobbyist who will gracefully concede to Chucky that it really is all because Bush has provided unnecessary "giveaways" to the Oil companies, but the good, honest (Democrat) oil companies really didn't want them (never mind that the subsidies he'll be talking about date back to Clinton).
  • Fmr. Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, D-La.
    • J. Bennett Johnston pushed through legislation that provided subsidies for Gulf drilling when oil was $16/barrel.  The consensus from the articles I found is the oil industry gets billions from this now, but doesn't think they need it at current prices.  I think this "debate" is a set up to let Chucky "win" a major concession from a fellow Democrat, now oil industry lobbyist, so why won't Bush and Cheney get their (greedy/evil) friends in the oil industry to provide similar sacrifices?
  • George Clooney (Voices)
    • I think Clooney is one of the classic victims of living inside the Hollywood bubble.  He only hears from toadies and like minded radicals, so he can't help being a tool.  But even a tool can occasionally get something right.  I hope he can manage to get the press in this country to stop ignoring Darfur.  Of course, he'll completely ignore the rather significant efforts that the Bush administration has made to try to push this through the UN and blame it all on Bush.
  • Fareed Zakaria - Newsweek's International Editor
    • Will push the notion that "Amnesty works" and "The notion that illegal immigrants are prone to crime (beyond their immigration status) is unfounded; they know that as soon as the authorities catch them breaking the law, they'll be deported." (paraphrasing used in this article)
  • Jay Carney - Time Magazine
    • Must have some spin on Rove and Fitzgerald.  That's all I can think of.
  • Claire Shipman - ABC News correspondent
    • She'll be dissing Tony Snow, for sure
  • George Will
    • He'll be dissing George Bush, for damned sure
• ABC This Week comment web page

CBS Face The Nation (Bob Schieffer)

• Meme:
  • It is NOT the environmentalists fault!
  • OK, maybe a little bit, but the incompetent Bush administration foreign policies are the real problem
  • The Republican "culture of corruption" extends to these obviously corrupt Republican Senators from Alaska, so when they tell you they want to drill in ANWR to bring down gas prices, don't you believe them!
• Topics:
  • None listed, but you know it's oil, Iraq and Iran
• Guests
  • Condoleezza Rice: Secretary of state
    • Did you know that she went to 600 countries this week?
  • Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
    • She's in a tough race against a credible Republican so her friends at CBS are gonna give her a bit of free face time and show everyone just how important she is
  • Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
    • The Washington Post has discovered the evils of Pork!  Of course, they're only interested in this particular pork (the "bridge to nowhere") as a tool to discredit Alaska's two Republican Senators because they favor drilling in ANWR.
• Face The Nation contact information - ftn@cbsnews.com

CNN Late Edition (Wolf Blitzer)

• Meme:
  • It is NOT the environmentalists fault!
  • It's the oil companies fault
  • OK, maybe a little bit of the environmentalists fault (but that's a good thing) and only a little bit of the oil companies (but they're still evil and greedy), but the incompetent Bush administration foreign policies really are stupid, aren't they?
• Topics:
  • Will the new Iraqi government be able to unify the country?
  • What should be done about Iran's nuclear ambitions?
• Guests
  • Condoleezza Rice: Secretary of state
    • If you want to know about her foreign trips you should be watching CNN International
    • Bet: Wolfe will ask if the Bush administration needs to apologize to someone for something they did wrong.
  • Sen. Trent Lott: R-Mississippi: Select Intelligence Committee member
    • Trent will want to talk diplomacy and get in a few digs at Bush (which Wolfe will allow).  I hope that Wolfe will want to talk about that $700 million pork in the Iraq emergency appropriations bill.  This could be one time it could be really good to watch CNN.
  • Sen. Barbara Boxer: D-California: Foreign Relations Committee member
    • She's beginning to think that George Will isn't such a bad guy after all
  • Efraim Halevy: Former Mossad director
    • He is on the show for one reason and one reason only: Ex Mossad chief suggests Hamas negotiations (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY)
  • James Woolsey: Former CIA director
    • The moonbats are really out circulating the most bizarre stuff about him
    • The fact that he is promoting bio-fuels in a big way is not one of the bizarre lies being told by the moonbats
• CNN Late Edition (web page for comments)

Fox News Sunday (Chris Wallace)

• Meme:
  • Fox is now a serious player in the news business
  • Fox is not the official news agency of the Bush administration!  Really, we mean it! (watch for more mandatory Bush bashing to establish "cred")
• Topics:
  • 'FNS' celebrates our 10th anniversary!
  • Exclusive interview with the President Bush's new chief of staff, Josh Bolten
  • Meet Tony Snow, new White House press secretary
• Guests
  • Josh Bolten, White House chief of staff
    • There will be some "tough reporting" attempted, but I bet this is mostly about how important Fox News really is
  • Tony Snow, new White House press secretary (may be video profile and not an interview)
    • Letting Tony enjoy the calm before the storm
    • Watch for efforts to establish Tony's credentials beyond Fox
• Fox News Sunday contact information - FNS@foxnews.com
• Note: there is a special FOX News Sunday @ 10 celebrating the 10th anniversary, Sunday, April 30 at 10 p.m. ET

NBC Meet The Press (Tim Russert)

• Meme:
  • It's the oil companies fault
  • OK, if it's not the oil companies, then it's the incompetent Bush administration domestic policies
  • They couldn't get a credible foreign policy expert, therefore it is impossible to raise the question of Iran
• Topics:
  • "the entire hour (is) an in-depth discussion on Gas Prices with an exclusive guest line-up"
• Guests
  • Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman
    • "Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and see this weeks sacrificial offering from the Bush administration"
    • "Let me explain this to you slowly... there are these two forces working against us, supply and regulation..."
  • American Petroleum Institute President Red Cavaney
    • "Let me explain this to you slowly... there's a thing called supply, then there's this thing called demand..."
    • Russert will spout "record profits, hundreds of billions of dollars"
    • Cavaney will counter "8.3% profit... invested more in the last 10 years than our profit in that same period..."
  • Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
    • Listen for a variation of this rehearsed attack line: "We have followed the Cheney energy policy into this ditch. It's time for the President to call the Vice-President in and tell him, 'heck of a job, Cheney. You could have done a lot better.'" (ABC Online, Australia)
• What would you like to ask this week's guests? (web page for submitting questions for this weeks show)
• Meet the Press mailbox (web page for comments)

This is NOT intended to be the live Sunday Morning Talk Show thread. I trust AB will do that as usual. This is strictly a preview of who will be on the main shows. The idea is to give folks a chance to muster their resources for that thread.

I would particularly ask that anyone with specific knowledge or resources about the topics / guests announced for these shows post them here so that the rest of us can go into the shows with a heads up on what to look for.

[Bahbah]

Hah, somebody put a sock in Gabler and told him not to dis a Fox guy. No smart aleck cracks. Jane is wrong that Tony does not agree with the President on immigration. He pretty much does. Gabler of course says it's not the message, it's the policies that are wrong and almost no one agrees on the Bush foreign policy. I am one of the almost no ones, I guess.

[Txsleuth]

Yes...he laughed at the idea that President Bush would get an "A" for foreign policy...

I wonder if he was with Sharpton, Jackson, Sheehan and others, protesting in New York today...to bring home the troops???

As foreign policy, the idea of bringing the troops home now...would be given an "F"..or maybe a "T" for terrorism, because Terrorism would break out even more, all over the world...especially here in the USA...but, of course YOU know that...

so does the left...but they don't care.

[Bahbah]

so does the left...but they don't care.

I know. I just don't get it, unless seeing America as the toothless tiger will hurry the march to socialism. It's perplexing.

[SERKIT]

Good. As long as it wasn't glossilalia.

(Previous post) Nice job, but what is "Meme"?

As defined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976): "a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation." "Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation. ...

www.silcom.com/~barnowl/chain-letter/glossary.htm

If your interested, I think the definitive work on this topic is Virus of the Mind: by Richard Brodie. The analogy of a virus spreading is appropriate. How it gets started and how it is pushed in various directions is the business of the drive by media. An important concept.

[RobFromGa]

great job, first time I've seen this. Please put me on your ping list for the Preview.

[N. Beaujon]

Please ping. Thank you.

[Phsstpok]

Done and Done, thank you both

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Please add me to your ping list.....better reading than watching the Sunday Shows,,,,