For coverage of Democrats' historic day in Congress, NBC interviews ... John McCain

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200701060004

On November 12, 2006, the first Sunday after an election in which Democrats rode anti-war sentiment to take control of both houses of Congress in a landslide, NBC's Meet the Press hosted two guests, John McCain and Joe Lieberman -- neither of whom had been elected as a Democrat, and both of whom are among the most prominent supporters of the Iraq war.

NBC's Tim Russert began the broadcast by announcing: "What now for the Republicans? We'll ask a man who is positioned to seek the GOP nomination for president in 2008: Senator John McCain of Arizona. What now for the Democrats? We'll ask a man who lost a Democratic primary, but was just re-elected as an independent: Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut."

Democrats had just won control of both Houses of Congress, and to discuss "hat now for the Democrats," Russert hosted not a Democrat, but someone who had run for election against a Democrat! By contrast, the Republicans -- the losers of the previous week's elections -- were represented by one of their own.

As we wrote at the time, the Meet the Press guest list was "a slap in the face to the American electorate, which resoundingly rejected the war."

Yesterday, NBC proved it wasn't a one-time mistake. As the weblog Crooks and Liars first noted, on the day the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress, NBC's Today interviewed John McCain. In fact, McCain was the only political figure Today interviewed. In case the finger-in-the-eye nature of their decision to interview only a Republican senator on the day when Democrats took control of both houses of Congress was too subtle, the transcript of the segment available on Nexis is headlined "Senator John McCain talks about new Democratic Congress and the war in Iraq."

Did Today co-host Matt Lauer ask McCain if he and his party have learned from the beating they took last fall? Did he ask if McCain and his party would take to heart the American public's resounding rejection of the Iraq war, and of ... basically everything the Republicans have been doing?

He did not.

[Eric J in MN]

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