According to a new report released by Media Matters for America, the guests on Sunday morning talk television shows — which garner some 12 million viewers every week — are predominately white men. Media Matters, a media watchdog group, studied the 2005 and 2006 guest lists of NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, CBS’ Face the Nation, and Fox Broadcasting Co.’s Fox News Sunday. On average, men outnumbered women by a 4-to-1 ratio.
The lack of minority guests was even more striking, with nearly seven white guests for every guest of any other race. African-American guests averaged 9 percent of the total guests over the two years. Latinos fared even worse, making up only 1 percent of the guests on Sunday shows. The top-rated show — Meet the Press — had the least diversity of all, with the highest percentage of male guests, and nearly the most white.
The report, released Monday, trails on the heels of another study released last week by Media Matters for America that documented the lack of women and minorities in nightly news programs.
