[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18471-18472]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      MEDIA FAIRNESS INITIATIVE: NETWORKS ENGAGE IN LABELING BIAS

  (Mr. SMITH of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Madam Speaker, sometimes the worst examples of 
unfair news coverage are what reporters choose not to say. For example, 
while the media often label Governor Sarah Palin ``conservative,'' they 
seldom call Senator Barack Obama or Senator Joe Biden ``liberal,'' 
despite the fact that the National Journal ranks Senator Obama as the 
most liberal member of the Senate, and Senator Biden as the third most 
liberal member of the Senate.

[[Page 18472]]

  A comparison of television network news programs immediately after 
each vice presidential selection shows that newscasters continually 
referred to Governor Sarah Palin as ``conservative,'' but did not one 
time, not a single time, label Senator Joe Biden as ``liberal.''
  The American people should encourage the media to apply the same 
rules to both Presidential tickets. Only then can we restore Americans' 
faith in news reporting.

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