We've all heard the never-ending cry from liberal Democrats that conservative Republicans dodge diversity by favoring white males as hosts and guests on their television programs to the detriment of people in such groups as women and blacks.

However, in an article on the Reuters news service, writer Chloe Angyal charges that such “liberal lions” as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert of the Comedy Central cable channel are obviously hypocritical regarding this topic since “their guest rosters more closely resemble a GOP national convention than they do the liberal vision of a diverse and equitable America.”

During Tuesday evening's edition of The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS, Rachel Maddow -- host of her own eponymous weeknight program on MSNBC – told the retiring host/comedian that the problems in Ferguson, Missouri, are the result of a number of intersecting conflicts.

People in the community feel “very unrepresented” in the government, she stated, which is in part due to the large disparity between the number of black citizens and local officials of the same race. Finally, Maddow claimed that Americans found it “terrifying” to see the type of military-style weaponry the small-town police department used to control demonstrators and protesters when incidents of unrest threatened to become dangerous riots.

Conservative icon Rush Limbaugh declared during his radio show on Friday that the “mainstream media” was unable to transform “gentle giant” black teenager Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by white police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, into Rodney King -- the black man who became famous for a high-speed pursuit by the police and later asking “Can't we all get along?” 22 years ago -- because “alternative media,” including talk radio, has destroyed “the monopoly of the Drive-By Media.”

That claim was contradicted by Touré Neblett, a co-host of MSNBC's weekday The Cycle program, who charged in Sunday's edition of the Washington Post that black victims of crime become “thuggified” as negative incidents in their pasts are revealed to the public that diminish their standing in America’s “empathy gap.”

Ten days after police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American, in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, black filmmaker Spike Lee added his voice to the tumult over the incident. During Tuesday night's edition of Anderson Cooper 360, he told the CNN anchor: “Something smells bad in Ferguson, and it’s not just tear gas.”

“I do not think you should be killed in this country because allegedly you steal some cigarillos. I don’t think you should be killed in this country if there is marijuana in your system,” Lee told Cooper while referring to Brown. “The people -- not only in Ferguson, but all over this country -- do not trust what is happening. I just think there's a war on the black male, and it’s tearing this country apart." [See video below.] 

Soon after 18-year-old Michael Brown was gunned down by an unidentified policeman on Sunday afternoon in Ferguson, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis, Rev. Al Sharpton arrived on the scene to “speak up for the family of the victim” and spend a great deal of time in the spotlight.

However, the host of MSNBC's weekday afternoon PoliticsNation program quickly became the target of several critics, one of whom accused him of being a publicity-seeking “coon.” Sharpton shot back that “using a racial term tells you more about him than me.”

During Monday's edition of The View, Sherri Shepherd -- who had served as a co-host on the ABC weekday program for seven years -- gave an emotional farewell in which she declared she is “so thankful for the group of friends and family that I have made and that have supported me” throughout her tenure.

Shepherd also acknowledged the criticism she'd received over the years from Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, Bill Maher, host of the Real Time program on HBO, and another talk show host who said "she could be replaced with a potato sack.” [See video below.] 

While the Cable News Network continues to suffer from low ratings, its corporate headquarters has made a number of changes in an effort to hold down costs and change its focus. The latest move came this week, when more than a dozen employees in the cable television channel's digital politics division learned that their positions will be eliminated by the end of the month.

According to an article by Peter Sterne on the capitalnewyork.com website, the workers “were told that they would have to re-apply to new positions with new job descriptions.”

It's not hard to tell which side MSNBC's Joy Reid is regarding the conflict between Israel and Hamas over the Gaza Strip. During Tuesday's edition of The Reid Report, she hammered the United States's staunchest ally in the region over an attack on a United Nations elementary girls' school that resulted in the deaths of 16 civilians -- including several children -- and injured more than 100 people.

During her “Reid Between the Lines” segment, the liberal host stated: “So far, the war in Gaza has left more than 1,800 Palestinians dead, the population equivalent to one hundred 9/11s -- mostly civilians, and including women and hundreds of children -- along with 67 Israelis, mostly soldiers.” She called these statistics a sign that “the U.N. is clearly not working.”

Dean Obeidallah, a liberal columnist for the Daily Beast, ignited a firestorm last Friday, when he asked on Twitter: “Do conservatives defend [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu because they share the same values or because they love seeing Arabs get killed?” His answer? “Trick question: It's both.”

Five tumultuous days later, the Arab-American comedian posted: “I want to sincerely apologize without reservation for my earlier tweet” because “I sincerely do not believe that is true.  Sometimes in the heat of the moment, attempts at humor can go terribly wrong.”