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LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling courtside at an October 2013 NBA game. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/MCT)
Benghazi, jobs and an NBA owner’s racist remarks. Given the events of the past week, these topics will not surprisingly drive interviews and roundtable discussion on the May 4 Sunday news shows.
Headliners include former (and future?) presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry on NBC’s Meet the Press. And there may be some chuckles alongside the news over at ABC’s This Week, which will feature new HBO host and comedian John Oliver as he enters his second week of Last Week Tonight episodes. (In case you missed it, PunditFact evaluated Oliver’s first guest, former NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander, about secretive intelligence programs.)
Donald Sterling and racism in the USA
Fallout from a leaked voicemail left by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling that contained disparaging remarks about African-Americans will also drive discussion. Read up on our fact-checks of faulty commentary on the issue.
Sacramento mayor and former NBA star Kevin Johnson will discuss Sterling’s ouster on Meet the Press. Johnson was one of the most vocal athletes calling for a tough response from the NBA.
On CBS’ Face the Nation, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti will join Richard Williams, author and father of tennis phenoms Venus and Serena Williams, and CBS News special correspondent James Brown on the scandal and what it means for American race relations.
Benghazi
New White House emails published by conservative group Judicial Watch have the punditsphere abuzz again about the deadly 2012 attacks on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya. In particular, a Sept. 14, 2012, email from deputy national security adviser Benjamin Rhodes to Susan Rice, who was ambassador to the United Nations at the time, that listed talking points ahead of her Sunday show appearances about Benghazi and elsewhere in the Middle East.
One goal Rhodes listed was "to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy."
To some conservatives, that reinforces a longstanding belief that the White House was more concerned about politics than truth when Rice characterized the attack as motivated by an anti-Islam video. The White House dismissed the email as irrelevant to the Benghazi attack, saying Rhodes was talking about other video-related protests in the Middle East.
Fox News Sunday will seek input on this news from Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, members of committees dealing with armed services and intelligence.
CBS will fold coverage of Benghazi with the latest in Ukraine, bringing in Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and CBS News foreign correspondent Clarissa Ward. CNN's State of the Union will host Sen. Ron Johnson, D-Wisc., and Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., to talk about developments between Ukraine and Russia.
Latest jobs numbers
The U.S. economy is also on tap for discussion, with the April jobs report presenting a mixed bag of emotions. The country gained 288,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent, but the labor force participation fell with the departure of more than 800,000 Americans from the workforce.
Fox brings in FedEx CEO Fred Smith and 32 Advisors CEO Robert Wolf to talk about job creation and a suspected negative link with Obamacare.
The roundtables
Fox News Sunday: Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume, former U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., columnist George Will and The Hill staff writer Elise Viebeck.
CNN’s State of the Union: Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, Washington Week moderator Gwen Ifill and Republican strategist Ana Navarro.
ABC’s This Week: ABC political commentator and conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, Democratic Crossfire co-host Van Jones, Democratic strategist and ABC commentator David Plouffe, ABC’s Cokie Roberts, and former 2012 GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum.
CBS’ Face the Nation:The Atlantic correspondent and author Ta-Nehisi Coates, Georgetown University sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson, NPR host Michele Norris and New York Times reporter William Rhoden.
NBC's Meet the Press: Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, former White House communications director Anita Dunn, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker, NBC News political director Chuck Todd, and will.i.am.
Our Sources
See show websites.
