Concerned about the paucity of African-Americans in the media venues that help to shape public opinion and influence policy, the National Urban League Policy Institute, the research, policy and advocacy arm of the National Urban League, last year undertook an in-depth study of the guest lineups of the Sunday morning political talk shows. In July 2005, the Institute released its preliminary findings, covering the five major cable and broadcast network Sunday morning talk shows for the period between January 1, 2004 and June 30, 2005. Among other things, the study concluded that 60 percent of the Sunday morning talk shows featured no black guests at all, either as interview subjects or roundtable participants and that 78 percent of the broadcasts contained no interviews with a black guest.

 
The National Urban League thereafter commissioned a more extensive follow-up study, covering the period from January 2004 through December 31, 2005. The findings of that study are detailed in this report. 
 
The Sunday Morning Apartheid study revealed, among other things, that during the two-year period studied:
·         Sixty-one percent of all of the Sunday morning talk shows featured no black guests;
 
·         Eighty percent of the broadcasts contained no interviews with black guests;
 
·         Eight percent of the more than 2,800 guest appearances have been by black guests;
 
·         One person – Juan Williams, a commentator for Fox News – accounts for 40 percent of all appearances by black guests;
 
·         Three guests - Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Juan Williams - account for 65 percent of all appearances by black guests;
 
·         The vast majority of interviews with black guests other than Rice and Powell focus partisan political issues such as the 2004 Elections, rather than broader policy issues such as the economy, national security, and foreign affairs;
 
The results of the Sunday Morning Apartheid study make clear that Sunday morning network and cable political talk shows, a significant source of information, analysis and opinion on government, politics, and social issues, consistently fail to include African-Americans in their lineups.
 
Methodology
 
The National Urban League Policy Institute studied the five Sunday morning political network and cable talk shows - This Week with George Stephanopoulos (ABC), Face the Nation (CBS), Late Edition (CNN), Fox News Sunday (FOX) and Meet the Press (NBC) – reviewing and analyzing all programs broadcast between January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2005. 
 
The study encompassed this particular genre for two reasons. First, unlike other network news and talk programs, the Sunday morning talk shows are generally similar in focus and format and, thus, offer consistent models for comparison. Second, Sunday morning talk shows play a unique and substantial role in the political discourse in America and, as such, deserve greater scrutiny.
 
In analyzing the data, the Institute examined several variables, including the:
 
·         Number of programs with black guests v. number of programs with no black guests;
 
·         Number of interviews with black guests v. number of interviews with no black guests;
 
·         Number of roundtables with black participants v. number of roundtables with no black participants;
 
·         Number of guest appearances by black guests v. guest appearances by non-black guests;
 
·         Number of black guests v. non-black guests;
 
·         Type of guest (Senator, House Member, Administration official, etc.);
 
·         Frequency of appearances;
 
·         Topics discussed by black guests
 
The study divided the programs into two segments: interviews and roundtable discussions.[1] For the purpose of our analysis, “guest” is defined as any individual who appeared on these programs one or more times, either as an interview subject or a roundtable participant. “Guest appearances” are defined as actual appearances by a guest. One guest could account for numerous guest appearances; for example, in determining the number of African-Americans who have appeared as guests, Colin Powell is counted once. However, he has appeared 28 times during this period and, thus, accounts for 28 guest appearances. Therefore, the number black appearances, as limited as they are, are restricted to an even smaller pool of actual people.
 

[1] Three of the five programs- This Week, Meet the Press and FOX News Sunday - regularly included political roundtable discussions. Face the Nation occasionally holds roundtable discussions. Late Edition does not feature roundtable discussions in its program.