Not surprisingly, the Obama loving media gleefully reported the latter while almost completely ignoring the former.
What a shock, huh?
Here's how Reid on Tuesday responded to the questions: "Is there anything in Judge Sotomayor's record that you think gives you trouble or that could make -- could cause her trouble? For instance, she, in January, ruled that the Second Amendment doesn't apply to the states. Is that something that you agree with, that you could see that -- or that you don't agree with and may be able to give her trouble?" (video and partial transcript embedded below the fold):
I understand that during her career, she's written hundreds and hundreds of opinions. I haven't read a single one of them, and if I'm fortunate before we end this, I won't have to read one of them. But -- I'm not familiar with that opinion, but there will be plenty of time for people who are concerned about the Second Amendment -- and there are lots of people on the Judiciary Committee who are concerned about it -- they'll have lots of time to offer her questions and she'll proceed to answer them. But I don't know anything about that.
One would think the Majority Leader admitting that he's supporting the nomination of a Supreme Court justice without reading any of her opinions would be quite newsworthy.
Well, think again, for according to Google News and LexisNexis searches, of major media outlets, only the Washington Post's Dana Milbank thought Reid's comments were at all interesting, although they came in the last paragraph of his article published Wednesday.
By contrast, Reid's "Everyone in America, I want them to understand that we have the whole package here" was quite popular with reporters getting notice from news outlets such as the Associated Press, the New York Times, the Post, Slate, Reuters, AFP, CNN, and PBS's "News Hour."
I guess when it comes to Democrat nominees for the Court, only comments from the Left that support his or her confirmation are newsworthy.
As an aside, is it possible the media are no longer surprised by Democrats making decisions without actually reading what they're voting on? After all, few of them read Obama's stimulus package they approved in February, right?
(Readers are also apprised that some television news transcripts from Tuesday evening are not yet available at LexisNexis making it possible Reid's "haven't read a single one" comment was covered by more major media outlets than the Washington Post.)
