Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were featured guests on all the broadcast network Sunday morning shows with the exception of the one on Fox.
Host Chris Wallace was clearly unhappy about this, and let his viewers know (video follows with transcript and commentary):
CHRIS WALLACE: Of course we wanted to get the White House view on Libya. However, they chose to offer Secretary of State Clinton and Defense Secretary Gates to ABC, CBS and NBC, but not to Fox. Despite the fact that we routinely have more viewers than two of those Sunday shows, the Obama team felt no need to explain to the millions of you who watch this program and Fox News why they have sent U.S. servicemen and women into combat. We thought you’d like to know.
As Jeff Poor accurately noted at the Daily Caller, Clinton and Gates appeared on ABC's "This Week," CBS's "Face the Nation," and NBC's "Meet the Press."
However, I was a little confused by Wallace's claim "we routinely have more viewers than two of those Sunday shows." According to "TV by the Numbers," "Fox News Sunday" got slaughtered last week by its three broadcast rivals:
ABC “THIS WEEK” 2,660,000 940,000/0.8
NBC “MEET THE PRESS” 3,520,000 1,190,000/1.0
CBS “FACE THE NATION” 2,690,000 960,000/0.8
FOX “FOX NEWS SUNDAY” 1,410,000 580,000/0.5
Fortunately, TVNewser cleared up the discrepancy. When you add the above numbers to additional viewers "FNS" gets on the Fox News Channel, the totals typically exceed "FTN" and "MTP".
With this in mind, given the public's logical concern for what's going on in Libya, one has to wonder why the Administration didn't make every effort to get Clinton and Gates on with Wallace.
It should be interesting to see what the White House response is to Wallace's concern. Stay tuned.
