Sunday morning talk shows are still very white, very male and very conservative

White men continue to represent the largest portion of guests on most of the major networks' morning shows

Published October 11, 2013 5:37PM (EDT)

Sunday morning talk show guests are still, overwhelmingly, very white, very male and very conservative, according to a new report from Media Matters for America.

White men continue to dominate the guest lists on the major networks' shows, with the single exception of the Melissa Harris-Perry show.

More from Media Matters:

Six of the seven shows analyzed -- This WeekFace the NationFox News SundayMeet the PressState of the Union, and Up -- have hosted white men at a significantly higher rate than their 31 percent portion of the population. Melissa Harris-Perry provided the greatest diversity among guests, providing a much higher rate of white women and African-American guests than the other programs; Up also hosted a higher percentage of people from those demographics than CNN or the broadcast programs. Latino, Asian-American, and Middle Eastern guests have been largely absent from the Sunday shows. Native Americans fared even worse, with only two appearances (one on Melissa Harris-Perry and one on Up) out of a total of 2,436 appearances over the nine-month period studied.

White Men Were An Even Larger Proportion Of Solo Interviews. On the broadcast Sunday shows and CNN, white men were most often hosted for one-on-one interviews by a significant margin. 75 percent of Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday solo interview subjects were white men. Once again, only Melissa Harris-Perry demonstrated any reasonable diversity in this measure. Guests who were Latino, Asian-American, or Middle Eastern were hardly present at all. No Native American has received a one-on-one interview this year. Up did not have enough solo interviews in the period studied to be included in the comparison.

You can read the full report here.


By Katie McDonough

Katie McDonough is Salon's politics writer, focusing on gender, sexuality and reproductive justice. Follow her on Twitter @kmcdonovgh or email her at kmcdonough@salon.com.

MORE FROM Katie McDonough


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Gender Media Men Patriarchy Race Racism Representation Sunday Shows