For over 60 years, Meet the Press has featured headline-making interviews with world-leaders and U.S. newsmakers every Sunday morning on NBC. David Gregory , former NBC News Chief White House Correspondent, now moderates this venerable institution which can now be heard every Sunday at noon on WSRQ.
President John F. Kennedy once called Meet the Press the “fifty-first state.” Since then, every man who has occupied the Oval Office has appeared on the program during his career, as has every vice president since Alben Barkley in 1952.
In addition to Presidents and Vice Presidents, Meet the Press has featured interviews with all the key players in each administration. Every Secretary of State from John Foster Dulles to Hillary Clinton and every Secretary of Defense from Robert McNamara to Robert Gates has appeared on the program.
Foreign policy has always been a staple of Meet the Press as well. Some world leaders interviewed on the program include Fidel Castro, Francois Mitterrand, Indira Gandhi, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Ferdinand Marcos, Jean Monnet, Mikhail Gorbachev, Anwar el-Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin, King Hussein of Jordan, Hamid Karzai, Pervez Musharraf, King Abdullah of Jordan, Tony Blair and Ghazi al-Yawar.
“Meet the Press” is also proud of its history featuring women journalists and newsmakers. From the start, women played a significant role in the program. The co-creator of Meet the Press and the show’s first moderator was noted journalist Martha Rountree. The first female guest was Elizabeth Bentley, a former Soviet spy, who was interviewed on September 12, 1948.
“Meet the Press” has since interviewed First Ladies Eleanor Roosevelt, Nancy Reagan, Rosalynn Carter, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Laura Bush. Other notable women appearing as guests over the years include Madeleine Albright, Shirley Temple Black, Shuttle Commander Eileen Collins, Shirley Chisholm, Elizabeth Dole, Marian Wright Edelman, Geraldine Ferraro, Jane Fonda, Indira Gandhi, Tipper Gore, Anita Hill, Barbara Jordan, Caroline Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Janet Reno, Condoleezza Rice, Phyllis Schlafly, Gloria Steinem, and Maria Shriver.
Nearly every important newsmaker in the U.S. – from politicians, military and religious leaders & astronauts to sports stars, authors & comedians – has appeared on Meet the Press. Some of those prominent figures include Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Joseph McCarthy, Billy Graham, Robert Frost, Jackie Robinson, Jimmy Hoffa, John Glenn, George Wallace, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Michael Jordan, Jay Leno, Gen. Tommy Franks, Rick Warren, Bill Cosby, Lance Armstrong, Stephen Colbert, Gen. Colin Powell, Bill Gates and Gen. David Petraeus.
Every Sunday morning for 63 years, millions of Americans tune in to get answers from U.S. and world leaders, and hear analysis, discussion and review of the week’s political events from noted journalists and experts. We are proud to be the highest rated, most watched and most quoted Sunday morning public affairs program. An average of 4 million viewers join us each week to share in a national dialogue about the important issues of our time.
If it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press.
