Every weekend, the cable channel C-SPAN2 becomes "Book TV," a forum for authors to talk about their latest works.

        Let's take a look at some of the events from the schedule this past weekend, July 31, - August 1, 2004.

        Sen. Robert Byrd, the ex-Klansman and current Democratic dinosaur in the Senate, talked about his book, Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency. (He's talking about the Bush Presidency.) At the event, Byrd was lauded in a glowing introduction by Hillary Clinton. (This program aired three times over the weekend.)

        Bill Moyers, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration, was plugging his book, Moyers on America.

        Tom Hayden, the liberal activist from the infamous "Chicago Seven," spoke of his new book, Street Wars.

        Gary Hart, a Democrat who ran for President in 1988, talked about his new political tome, The Fourth Power.

        Toni Morrison, Joe Conason, Sidney Blumenthal, Al Franken, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., all prominent liberals, teamed up for a one-hour Bush-bash at an event that was supposedly entitled, "Books, Politics, and The Culture War." (This program aired three times.)

        Hmmm ... That's a lot of prominent liberal voices for one weekend!

        How about the conservatives?

        William F. Buckley, Jr., founder of National Review, plugged his new one, Miles Gone By: A Literary Biography. (This program aired twice last weekend but only once this weekend.)

        Rough Edges: My Unlikely Road From Welfare to Washington is an autobiography by a former Bush official, James Rogan,  but this program is barely 30 minutes and not very political.

        James Taranto, editor of OpinionJournal.com, is a conservative, but his latest work, Presidential Leadership, is a collection of nearly 50 essays from liberal and conservative scholars. The writers rank "the best and worst" Presidents from our nation's history. (George Washington is #1.) (The program ran once this weekend.)

        FINAL SCORE:

        Liberals, 9 airings ...

        Conservatives, 3 airings.

        By the way, the past weekend also marked Al Franken appearing on his third Book TV program in the last eight-and-a-half months (and his fourth in the last fourteen months). Ugh.

 

TheMediaReport.com asks ... Is Book TV adding itself to the pile of media outlets on the Kerry campaign?