While Thursday’s CBS Mornings was off on an emotional bender for Biden Supreme Court pick Ketanji Brown Jackson, ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today were also in the tank for Jackson, reporting her “historic hearing” featured her “facing down Republican attacks” over a “bitter,” “emotional,” “heated,” and “intense” few days that ended with a “pep talk” from Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).
“Historic hearing. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson facing down Republican attacks...Closing out the final day of questioning. The emotional moment that brought her to tears,” GMA co-host Robin Roberts proclaimed.
She later alluded to the histrionics from Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) by saying “testimony ended on an emotional note after 19 hours of intense questioning,” which congressional correspondent Rachel Scott boasted as having brought Jackson “to tears, telling the nation she has earned her spot in history.”
After playing a clip of Booker’s bit, Scott in part closed her 7:00 a.m. Eastern report (as she did a condensed version in the second hour) by touting the reception Booker received: “Senators, members of Jackson's family in this hearing room were visibly moved by those words from Senator Cory Booker[.]”
“These confirmation hearings have been bitter. They've been tense. They've been emotional but Judge Jackson still appears to be on a path to confirmation,” Scott said back towards the beginning of her piece.
Scott took aim at Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) for pressing Jackson on her sentencing history of child sex predators, but she did so without mentioning how she failed on Monday to corner Hawley about this:
But Senator Josh Hawley himself voted for at least three judges who engaged in the same practice. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, just 30 percent of people convicted of viewing or sharing child pornography are sentenced within the federal guidelines. The majority have received lesser sentences by Judges nominated by both parties.
Continuing its understated but still firmly pro-Jackson reporting, NBC’s Today featured its own Booker gush as chief Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett Haake cheered Booker’s bit as “a late-afternoon pep talk” to the liberal judge.
Earlier, co-host Hoda Kotb said Jackson was “grilled” and “under fire from” the GOP on what she had the courtesy to describe as “her record on the bench.”
Haake started his story by stating that, “heated” moments aside, “she appears well on her way to being confirmed.”
But as for Wednesday’s questions, Haake said she was “on defense Wednesday pushing back as Republican senators piled on, attacking her sentencing of child pornography cases[.]”
Haake couched Democratic support for her in having the truth on their side and Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) denouncing the hearing as having featured “jackassery”: “Democrats defending Jackson’s sentences as consistent with 70 percent of federal judges and even a Republican pushing back on the spectacle.”
After he added that Democrats “us[ed] their time largely to praise Judge Jackson's record and temperament and remarking on the history” and hailed Booker’s incident, Haake went into his explanation of the next steps in the committee.
And, as we’ve reported all week, these networks sure didn’t expound the same degree of affection for President Trump’s three Supreme Court picks.
Thursday’s Jackson-friendly coverage was brought to you by loyal advertisers such as Citi (on NBC) and Target (on ABC). Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant transcripts from March 24, click here (for ABC) and here (for NBC).
