Polilogue

With just about two weeks to election day, the coronavirus is striking back. Cases are on the rise across the country and around the world. On today’s episode of Polilogue, we look at how the Sunday shows covered the re-emergence of the COVID story. Then, we sample some of the messaging from the two parties on the state of the presidential race. This is all ahead of our special episode on Thursday’s debate—which you can expect in your podcast feed on Friday morning.

Chapters

• Introduction

• Highlight / Lowlight

• The Third Spike

• COVID Relief

• Election Sprint

• Show Rankings

• Dialogue Challenge

Shows discussed 

• Face the Nation on CBS

• State of the Union on CNN

• Fox News Sunday on FOX

• This Week on ABC

• Meet the Press on NBC

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Or leave a review on iTunes, Apple Music, or the Apple Podcast library. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

We are less than a month away from the presidential election. Today on Polilogue, we look at how the shows talk to and about voters. We also review interviews with the presidential campaigns and prominent Republican and Democratic senators in the middle of a Supreme Court nomination fight.

Chapters

• Introduction

• Highlight / Lowlight

• Voter Sentiments

• Changes to the Supreme Court

• Show Rankings

• Dialogue Challenge

Shows discussed 

• Face the Nation on CBS

• State of the Union on CNN

• Fox News Sunday on FOX

• This Week on ABC

• Meet the Press on NBC

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Or leave a review on iTunes, Apple Music, or the Apple Podcast library. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

In this special episode, we analyze the first and only vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris. We look critically at all sides of the debate. We divide our episode into three segments, covering Susan Page’s MIA moderation, Pence’s bizarro reality, and the Kamala Harris answer.

CHAPTERS:

• Introduction

• Where is Susan Page?

• The Pence World

• The Kamala Answer

• The Fly

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket and a significant commitment of time every week. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Thank you!

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

 Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

President Trump has COVID-19 and is currently hospitalized. Just a single month ahead of the election and the same week as the presidential debate! That would be enough, but there’s more to talk about this Sunday as the world struggled to understand the severity of the president’s illness. On today’s episode, we break down the conversations on the Sunday shows into two segments: the credibility crisis and the impact on the election.

Chapters

• Introduction

• Highlight / Lowlight

• The Credibility Crisis in Trumpworld

• The Election Consequences

• Show Rankings

• Dialogue Challenge

Shows discussed 

• Face the Nation on CBS

• State of the Union on CNN

• Fox News Sunday on FOX

• This Week on ABC

• Meet the Press on NBC

Resources

• Dr. Anthony Fauci Speaks to the Likelihood of Vaccines for HIV and COVID-19 (American Journal of Managed Care)

• U.S. Public Now Divided Over Whether to Get COVID-19 Vaccine (Pew Research Center)

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Or leave a review on iTunes, Apple Music, or the Apple Podcast library. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

In this special episode, we analyze the first presidential debate between President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. We look critically at all sides of what Dana Bash called this “shitshow” of an event. We divide our episode into four segments, covering Trump’s interruptions, Chris Wallace’s moderation, Biden’s strategy, and a few sparse policy highlights.

CHAPTERS:

• Introduction

• Overall Impressions

• Trump’s Interruptions

• Chris Wallace’s Moderation

• Joe Biden’s Strategies

• Policy Discussions

• Looking Ahead

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket and a significant commitment of time every week. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Thank you!

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

 Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

On Saturday, September 26, President Trump officially nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the Supreme Court seat that had previously been filled by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. In 2017, the Senate confirmed Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Despite the 2016 Republican outcry of having SCOTUS nomination hearings during an election year, Republicans are moving forward with Coney Barrett’s nomination hearings and hope to confirm the judge before Election Day. Democrats, with very little recourse, are protesting the rushed process.

On today’s episode, we look at how the Sunday shows introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett to America and all the components of her personal life and professional record that were missing in that introduction.

Chapters

• Introduction

• Highlight / Lowlight

• Media Misses the Mark

• More Senate than SCOTUS

• Show Rankings

• Dialogue Challenge

Shows discussed 

• Face the Nation on CBS

• State of the Union on CNN

• Fox News Sunday on FOX

• This Week on ABC

• Meet the Press on NBC

Resources

• Barrett pick draws attention to small religious group (CNN)

• Some Worry About Judicial Nominee’s Ties to a Religious Group (NYT)

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

The year 2020 sent more bad news this Friday when the world learned that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had passed away.  An unflappable and untiring champion of equal justice and a pioneer in women’s rights, Ginsburg was a liberal icon and a bastion of progressive power on the court.  Grief and memorials, however, took a backseat this week to the immediate news that Republicans would be rushing towards a new replacement nominee—despite their principled stand in 2016 that during an election year “the voters should have a voice.”

On today’s episode, we look at how the Sunday shows covered the loss of this historic figure, the hypocrisy of this new SCOTUS fight, and the options for democrats.  We also look at what the shows missed in their coverage of this story.

Chapters

• Introduction

• Highlight / Lowlight

• Republican Positions

• Democratic Positions

• What the Shows Missed

• Show Rankings

• Dialogue Challenge

Shows discussed 

• Face the Nation on CBS

• State of the Union on CNN

• Fox News Sunday on FOX

• This Week on ABC

• Meet the Press on NBC

Resources

• Transcript of RBG’s discussion this February at Georgetown University (link)

• “Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Unlikely Path to the Supreme Court” by Jill Lepore in The New Yorker

• “The Mysterious RBG” by Dahlia Lithwick in The Atlantic

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

We’re back!

After a few weeks of family leave for the birth of our baby, Mercedes, the Polilogue team is back with a fresh episode doing what we do best: consuming way too much news in one day and digesting and analyzing the journalistic choices of the Sunday morning political shows.

Today on Polilogue we discuss the lackluster coverage of the wildfires devastating the West Coast. Some shows covered it poorly, some shows missed the story completely. We wonder why journalists often drop the ball when covering natural disasters. We also discuss the 2020 election interviews. In particular, surrogates and defenders of President Donald Trump were featured extensively on the Sunday shows.

Chapters

• Introduction

• Highlight / Lowlight

• Wildfires Coverage

• 2020 Election

• Show Rankings

• Dialogue Challenge

Shows discussed 

• Face the Nation on CBS

• State of the Union on CNN

• Fox News Sunday on FOX

• This Week on ABC

• Meet the Press on NBC

Resources

• Tsunami Risk Communication: Warnings and the Myth of Panic (by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard)

• Yes, tons of ballots are sent to dead people. Trump shouldn’t worry about them. (WaPo)

• Rain: A Natural and Cultural History (by Cynthia Barnett)

• “U.S. federal fire and forest policy: emphasizing resilience in dry forests” (EcoSphere)

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

Today on Polilogue, we’re sharing our conversation with Lynn Walsh, Assistant Director at Trusting News. Trusting News is an organization that works with newsrooms trying to do and be better. Trusting News helps newsrooms understand how people decide what news to trust, and they help journalists implement trust-building strategies.

In this conversation, we discuss the state of journalism, why newsrooms should earn the trust of their audience, and the wants and responsibilities of news consumers.

This is our last episode in our series of specials while we spend time with our newborn baby girl. Next week we will return to our traditional coverage of the Sunday morning shows. We hope you enjoy these specials as much as we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to stop and think more broadly about the Sunday shows.

Chapters

• Introduction

• Interview with Lynn Walsh

• Closing Thoughts

Resources

• Trusting News website

• Trusting News on Twitter

• Lynn Walsh on Twitter

• AOC: The Facts vs. the Story (Mediate)

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org

What’s the single most important part of the Sunday morning political shows?  It’s not the panels.  Not the questions.  Not even the hosts.  It’s the bookings.  Who are the Sunday shows actually interviewing during any given week?  In this special episode of Polilogue, we dive into the question of bookings.  And it’s something we don’t talk about enough.  It’s all to easy to take the shows for what they are—and then ask: how good were the questions during this interview; how strong was the follow up; how meaningful the discussion?  And yet, you could have the best questions, the strongest follow up, and the most meaningful discussion but STILL fail by choosing the WRONG person to interview.  How does this happen—and how could the Sunday shows do better? 

This special episode continues our series of specials while we spend time with our newborn baby girl. Each week, you can expect a new episode until September—when we will return to our traditional coverage of the Sunday morning shows. We hope you enjoy these specials as much as we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to stop and think more broadly about the Sunday shows.

Chapters

• Introduction

• What is a Bad Booking?

• Missed Opportunities in Booking

• When Bookings Work

• Dialogue Challenge: How to Find New Voices

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] or you can send us your feedback @PolilogueCast. You can also follow us at @sotonaomi_ and @bsteidle.

Support the show: We produce Polilogue out of our own pocket. If you’d like to support the show with a one-time or recurring donation, please visit our donate page here. Thank you!

Check out some of our other work: 

Brendan’s website: www.armisticedesigns.com  

Naomi's website: www.startwithaquestion.org