[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8460]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         NETWORKS SHOW DOUBLE STANDARD ON SUPREME COURT NOMINEE

  (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. Mr. Speaker, when former President George W. Bush 
nominated John Roberts and Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court, the 
television networks repeatedly described them as ``conservative,'' and 
used terms such as ``bedrock conservative,'' ``staunch conservative,'' 
and ``ultraconservative.'' In contrast, the networks rarely label 
President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, as ``liberal,'' 
according to an analysis by the Media Research Center. In fact, the 
networks called Justice Alito ``conservative'' 10 times more often than 
they called Judge Kagan ``liberal'' after their respective nominations, 
according to the MRC.
  Perhaps that's no surprise, considering the networks' own political 
philosophy. These are the same networks who called Candidate Obama 
moderate, even though he had the most liberal voting record in the 
entire U.S. Senate. The networks should give Americans the facts about 
Supreme Court nominees, not practice double standards.

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