Speaking of "overexposed" ...
September 24, 2009 10:12 am ET by Jamison Foser
Last week, ABC News ran a segment about the possibility -- promoted by conservatives and journalists but undermined by public polling -- that President Obama is "overexposed."
The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen points out that this weekend, ABC's This Week hosts Sen. John McCain. It will be McCain's third appearance on This Week in five months, and his 13th Sunday show appearance this year. Thirteenth.
John McCain 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 -- a party that is pretty widely disliked and has taken a thumpin' in two straight elections. He is not playing a central, or even peripheral role in the health care debate. And yet he's on television all the time.
When can we expect rampant media talk about John McCain being "overexposed"?
UPDATE: For comparison, John Kerry was on three Sunday shows in the first eight months of 2005. The media treated Kerry like he lost a presidential campaign. They treat McCain like he won his.
UPDATE 2: Greg Sargent has a response from ABC's George Stephanopoulos to the McCain booking:
Stephanopoulos hit back, saying he has "no apologies" for booking McCain, despite this being his third big appearance on ABC this year. In response to critics who point out that McCain lost, Stephanopoulos also claimed, interestingly, that he'd repeatedly asked John Kerry to appear after his 2004 loss, but that Kerry refused.
I don't have any trouble believing that ABC -- and probably NBC and CBS, too -- tried to book Kerry in 2005. But that's less meaningful than it may seem. They were, no doubt, trying to book him in part because he hadn't done many shows. If he had already been on five Sunday shows in a few months, would ABC have tried to get Kerry to come on? If he'd been on a dozen in eight months, would ABC have been eager to be number 13?
That I doubt very much.
Nor does Stephanopoulos' response address the fact that one week ABC is running news reports suggesting the President of the United States is "overexposed," and the next ABC is hosting a Senator who represents two percent of America for his thirteenth Sunday show this year.
Media Matters: The Palin chronicles
The Friday Rush: A series of conflicts
Contrary to media hype, Sarah Palin is very unpopular
Compared to Kerry (and Gore as well), McCain has had a lot of face time. 'Overexposure' is up for debate, but this is certainly an area where the conservatives have two standards in use.
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IMHO
You obviously missed the point [how unusual for Mr. Black and White]. The point is that McCain lost the 2008 election, he holds no committee chairs, he is simply the alsoran to Obama's win. THere is no real reason that he should be the darling of the Sunday morning talk shows.
He, Dick Cheney and Liz "I do NOTHING except defend my Daddy" Cheney are WAY overexposed.
BTW, I don't have any loyalty to MMFA, I just come here to see the idiots on parade and comment. It's the idiots on parade who say the idiot things they say . . . MMFA just posts them.
Actually, I don't think you are missing that - I think you are flaying about, trying to distract us and derail a thread.
Comparing the number of times that John Kerry (the closest thing that Dems had to a national leader) appeared as a counter to a Republican Administration to the number of times that John McCain (who wasn't the national leader of the Republicans when he was running - Bush was) has been on the Sunday morning talk shows isn't anything close to a false equivalence.
And you think that MMFA is being petty? I am not shocked. Nor do any of us care what you think. You have no credibility here based upon your previous posting behavior.
BTW, I was a McCain supporter in 2000 and might have considered voting for him in 2008 had he not shown such total disdain for his country by choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Troll.
You guessed it. Huggy Bear himself, John McCain.
Right. 13 times, to be exact. How many Sunday appearances must McCain make before ABC says McCain--like they said about Obama--might be "overexposed"? 20? 30? 50?