[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9722]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            ABC NEWS REDUCING CREDIBILITY OF NATIONAL MEDIA

  (Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, last night, ABC Nightly 
News in the height of irresponsibility reported that the Department of 
Justice is ``investigating Speaker Hastert.'' That report has been 
denied by both parties.
  Such a blatant falsehood comes at a time when the Speaker of the 
House has reached out to work with our friends on the other side of the 
aisle to ensure that the separation of powers within the Constitution 
is fully upheld.
  It is sad to say that at a time of declining and questionable 
journalistic standards, with an increasingly shrill and partisan 
ideological media, at a time when national news broadcasts seem to have 
more of the flavor of entertainment than hard news, ABC News has 
written a sad new chapter in the annals of yellow journalism.
  I support a free press. I believe it is a fundamental institution 
that is central to a free society. But ABC News, Madam Speaker, has, at 
a stroke, reduced the credibility of our national media. Mr. Hastert's 
reputation, however, remains impeccable among those of us who have had 
the privilege of working with him.

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