Partisan Television
A smart, interesting friend who works in a "right wing" think tank writes in response to the item below about Fareed Zakaria's column:
Fareed is right about the media pressure for guests to be partisan team players. I just got canceled out of what would have been one of my highest-prestige TV bookings ever because (they told me) top producers had decided I was not firmly enough committed to either side in the election.
Zakaria is certainly right about TV bookers. They're only interested in partisans. (Even Katrina vanden Heuvel, who's far to the left of the Democratic mainstream, plays a partisan Democrat on TV. Ditto Pat Buchanan and the GOP.) But my friend's own experience demonstrates an error in Zakaria's argument: Ritualistic partisanship doesn't come from ideological think tanks, which are in fact quite diverse. It reflects what works in the political and news-as-entertainment markets--or, at least, what TV bookers think works.
I did notice an exception to the partisan rule election night. At least on ABC, if you have a Newsweek column, they'll let you on.