There was a time when Sunday morning news programs like Meet the Press and Face the Nation were the arenas where America’s most pressing issues were dissected with seriousness and balance. Hosts pressed politicians from both parties with tough questions, challenged assumptions, and sought clarity for the public good. That mission has all but disappeared. Today, those same programs, along with CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, MSNBC’s All In, have morphed into megaphones for one party’s agenda. Instead of holding power to account, they are political messaging machines. They don’t interrogate; they amplify. They don’t challenge; they nod along. And the results are proving dangerous for a divided nation.
Watch these programs now, and the dynamic is unmistakable. A Democratic politician hurls an incendiary accusation such as calling the president a dictator, claiming he wants to “shoot people,” or accusing ICE of “Gestapo tactics,” and instead of stopping to demand evidence, the hosts often lean forward, nodding in agreement, or responding with a sympathetic “mm-hmm.” The questions are rarely pointed or probing. Instead, they’re leading and supportive, designed to give the guest more room to expand the narrative. What used to be an interview is now an echo chamber. The host’s role is no longer that of a watchdog but a hype man, adding legitimacy to extreme rhetoric simply by not challenging it.
The shift is clearest on the once-venerated Sunday shows. Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and State of the Union were once places where officials from both parties were grilled on policy and forced to defend their records. Now, they’re staging grounds for pre-scripted talking points about “war zones,” “Gestapo raids,” and “threats to democracy.” When someone warns that “democracy won’t survive” or that the government is “maximizing harm,” hosts don’t press for proof, hey nod, move on, or tee up the next partisan claim. True journalists should cover these statements but challenge them with context, or balance rather than endorsement.
This transformation from journalism into activism is one of the most corrosive developments in our civic life. A free press was never meant to be a propaganda weapon, yet that’s what too many outlets have become. By providing uncritical platforms to reckless language, they’re failing the public and enabling a dangerous cycle of outrage and escalation at the same time. Instead of bringing reason, they’re stoking tensions. Instead of promoting dialogue, they’re hardening divisions. As is written in James 3:6, “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity… it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature.” When the people trusted with informing the nation are helping radicalize it, that isn’t journalism anymore, it’s, say it with me…Stupidocrisy.
Sources:
Dean on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360
Fonda on CNN’s Inside Politics
Schiff on NBC’s Meet the Press
Duckworth on CBS’s Face the Nation
Pritzker on CNN’s State of the Union
Auchincloss on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360
Jeffries on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360
