Documenting TV's Double Standard on Supreme Court Nominees

February 6th, 2017 9:25 AM
An MRC analysis of labels used on ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows during the 24 hours after each of the past six Supreme Court nominations demonstrates the pattern. GOP nominees John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch were labeled by reporters as “conservative” a total of 36 times, while Democratic nominees Sonya Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Merrick Garland were called “liberal…

Jeffrey Toobin: Clarence Thomas Is Both ‘Radical’ and ‘Reactionary’

October 25th, 2016 9:52 PM
When it comes to Supreme Court justices and their views of the Constitution, on the one hand there’s Clarence Thomas, and on the other there’s everyone else in the 227-year history of the Court, suggested CNN and New Yorker legal analyst Toobin in a Tuesday piece. Toobin called Thomas, who just marked a quarter-century as a SCOTUS justice, “not a conservative but, rather, a radical” who’s driven…

Slate Writer: GOP Angry That Evenly Split SCOTUS Can’t ‘Screw’ Obama

April 20th, 2016 8:55 PM
Eight Is Enough was a popular television series in the late 1970s and early ’80s. Dahlia Lithwick hinted in a Saturday article that a show about Republicans’ sour attitude toward the current Supreme Court situation might be called Eight’s Not Enough, with the key role played in absentia by Antonin Scalia. Lithwick theorized that for Republicans, “the 2016 term was meant to be the Supreme Court’s…
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Supreme Court Nominees Always Too Conservative for the Liberal Media

March 15th, 2016 10:25 AM

Whomever Barack Obama selects to fill the vacancy left by the death of Antonin Scalia expect the liberal media to worry the selection isn’t progressive enough. As might be expected, journalists criticize the Supreme Court appointments made by Republican presidents as “hardline” and “very conservative.” But even the nominees elevated by recent Democratic presidents have been challenged as not…

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Toobin Lectures GOP on Having ‘Bad Moments’; Laments Roberts Criticism

February 13th, 2016 11:41 PM
CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin took part in the network’s post-Republican debate panel Saturday night and used the occasion to lecture the GOP candidates for all having “bad moments” in “a raucous screamfest” and rallied to the defense of Chief Justice John Roberts to lament the direction of the party he doesn’t even belong to. Further, liberal CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley…

NPR's Totenberg Pretends John Roberts Is 'Consistently Conservative'

October 6th, 2015 10:54 AM
As the Supreme Court term begins, NPR court correspondent Nina Totenberg played dumb on Monday’s Morning Edition, much like Adam Liptak at The New York Times. Why would conservatives dislike “consistently conservative” chief justice John Roberts? Desperately employing rickety rationales twice to uphold Obamacare somehow doesn’t undermine “consistency.” Totenberg forgot Roberts being hailed by…

NYT Defends 'Quite Conservative' John Roberts From Right-Wing 'Wrath'

September 30th, 2015 10:15 AM
New York Times Supreme Court correspondent Adam Liptak filed a liberal pleasing analysis Tuesday, fervently insisting Chief Justice John Roberts is a staunch conservative, despite what ridiculous right-wingers may think. His reported opinion piece, based on voting analysis by law professors, strained to show Roberts as a loyal conservative Justice, but the evidence is hardly as cut and dried as…

Blogger: Right-Wing ‘Mass Insanity’ Common During Obama Years

July 3rd, 2015 4:35 PM
Conservatives have an ideological fever, and the only prescription is to wait until their crazy ideas vanish. That’s the word from Washington Monthly blogger Martin Longman, who opined in a Wednesday post that many on the right have suffered from a sort of “heat-fever” when confronted with President Obama and his policies. Longman explained that “a fever is something that comes over you suddenly…

New Republic: Obamacare Ruling Aside, SCOTUS ‘Plenty Conservative’

July 2nd, 2015 9:17 PM
In the week since the Supreme Court upheld certain Obamacare subsidies, some on the left, applying the wisdom that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” have gratefully praised majority-opinion-writer John Roberts. But now liberals need to put their warm fuzzies for the chief justice behind them and guard against “complacency” regarding the court, advised Brian Beutler in a Tuesday article. “…

Professor: GOP Likely to Remain ‘Unhinged’ For A Few More Years

June 29th, 2015 9:10 PM
It’s likely that most NewsBusters readers are familiar with the grimly humorous saying “the beatings will continue until morale improves.” Last Friday, UCLA professor of public policy Mark Kleiman opined in so many words that the Republican party’s beatings in presidential elections will continue until its mental health improves. In a Friday Washington Monthly post, Kleiman mocked conservatives…

Daily Beastie Cries 'Treason' and 'Terrorism' on Conservative Justices

June 28th, 2015 7:19 PM
When the Left erupted in outrage over the Supreme Court decision on campaign financing in Citizens United, they never thought their resistance to the result could be described as “treason.” But that’s not the way they’re playing on the new gay-pleasing decisions. At The Daily Beast, contributor and gay activist Jay Michaelson asked “Did The Four Dissenting Justices In Gay Marriage Case Just…

WashPost Gay Advice: The Right Needs to Surrender, Like Confederates

June 28th, 2015 8:16 AM
Last year, The Washington Post gave a gay activist named Steven Petrow a regular column called “Civilities.” This quickly became a farce, since Petrow was a fan of outing...and Dan Savage. The original conceit was that this gay Mr. Manners was going to explain to the readers how to negotiate the Brave New World of mangled pronouns and how to address gay newlyweds on your Christmas cards and so…
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ABC Censors Conservatives As It Touts 'Loftiest' Marriage Ruling

June 27th, 2015 1:07 AM
On Friday, ABC's World News Tonight aired a completely one-sided report on the Supreme Court's ruling that legalized same-sex "marriage" in all 50 states. Terry Moran hyped how Justice Anthony Kennedy "wrote today's landmark opinion describing the stakes in this case in the loftiest terms." Moran failed to include any soundbites from social conservative opponents of the decision, and hyped how "…
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Nets Cheer ‘Historic’ ObamaCare Ruling, Hail Roberts as 'Conservative'

June 25th, 2015 11:23 PM
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in favor of President Obama in the ObamaCare subsidy case, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC were out in full force during their Thursday evening newscasts to cheer the “historic ruling” and labeled Chief Justice John Roberts as a “conservative” after having “saved” ObamaCare “from a devastating blow.” CBS anchor Scott Pelley assured viewers in an…