[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7825]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   POLL RESULTS: MEDIA NOT OBJECTIVE

  (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, during a telephone town meeting 
last night, I asked my constituents, ``Do you think the media are fair 
and objective in their news coverage?'' Ninety-one percent of the 
almost 400 respondents said the media are not fair, and only 7 percent 
said that they are fair.
  This is an amazing result but not a surprising one, since slanted 
coverage pervades much of the news Americans get every day.
  One of the greatest threats America faces is a biased media. If the 
American people don't get the facts, they can't make good decisions. 
And if they can't make good decisions, we won't have a democracy.
  The national media need to let the American people make up their own 
minds, not tell them what to think.

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