WASHINGTON - February 14 - Today, Media Matters for America released the findings of its first in-depth study, which indicates that conservative voices have significantly outnumbered progressive voices on the Sunday shows throughout former President Bill Clinton's second term (1997-2000), President George W. Bush's first term (2001-2004), and 2005.

The report -- titled If It's Sunday, It's Conservative -- includes content analysis of NBC's Meet the Press, CBS' Face the Nation, and ABC's This Week, classifying each one of the nearly 7,000 guests who appeared during the 1997-2005 period as either Democrat, Republican, conservative, progressive, or neutral.

"There is strong evidence indicating Democrats and progressives have been systematically underrepresented on the Sunday talk shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC no matter what party has occupied the White House," said Paul Waldman, Senior Fellow at Media Matters and author of the study. "With a combined audience of nearly 10 million households every week, the networks have given conservatives and Republicans significantly more opportunities to shape public debate and influence public opinion."

Among the study's key findings:

-- During Clinton's second term, the right held a small advantage in the balance between Democrats/progressives and Republicans/conservatives: 52 percent of the ideologically identifiable guests were from the right and 48 percent were from the left. But in Bush's first term, Republicans and conservatives held a dramatic advantage, outnumbering Democrats and progressives by 58 percent to 42 percent. In 2005, the figures were identical: 58 percent to 42 percent.

-- Counting only elected officials and administration representatives, Democrats had an eight-point advantage during Clinton's second term, 53 percent to 45 percent. In Bush's first term, however, the Republican advantage was 61 percent to 39 percent, nearly three times as large.

-- In both the Clinton and Bush administrations, conservative journalists were far more likely to appear on the Sunday shows than were progressive journalists. In Clinton's second term, 61 percent of the ideologically identifiable journalists were conservative; in Bush's first term, that figure rose to 69 percent.

-- In 1997 and 1998, the shows conducted more solo interviews with Democrats and progressives than with Republicans and conservatives. But in every year since, there have been more solo interviews with Republicans and conservatives.

-- The most frequent Sunday show guest during this nine-year period is Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) who has appeared 124 times. A staggering 69 percent (86 out of 124) of McCain's appearances have been solo interviews. Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) has been the most frequent guest since 2003, but only 31 percent (25 out of 80) of his appearances have been solo interviews.

-- In every year examined by the study -- 1997 through 2005 -- more multi-guest panel discussions tilted right (a greater number of Republicans/conservatives than Democrats/progressives) than tilted left. In some years, there were two, three, or even four times as many right-titled panels as left-tilted panels.

-- Congressional opponents of the Iraq war were largely absent from the Sunday shows, particularly during the period just before the war began.

"If conservative dominance in this major arena of public opinion-making continues as it has the past nine years, it may have serious consequences for future policy debates and elections," said David Brock, President and CEO of Media Matters. "This study should serve as a wake-up call to anyone who thinks they are seeing balanced discourse on Sunday mornings -- and to those responsible for producing this imbalanced programming."

While conducting the study, Media Matters asked the producers of all three Sunday shows several questions, including: Why, since the Bush administration began, have more Republicans/conservatives appeared on your show than have Democrats/ progressives? If It's Sunday, It's Conservative includes their answers. Two of the respondents suggested that their guest list often includes members of the party holding the presidency and that the same was true during the Clinton administration. However, as the report details, the data from the Clinton years indicate a clear Republican/conservative advantage -- an advantage that ballooned during Bush's first term.

The complete report can be found at http://www.mediamatters.org.

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