Topic: CNSNews.com
A Dec. 19 CNSNews.com article by Pete Winn cites only conservative "legal experts" to mourn the death of right-wing jurist Robert Bork. Winn does not identify any of them as conservative (though he does identify Bork as one), nor does he quote any liberal "legal experts" on Bork's death.
Winn identifies Michael McConnell as "One of America’s foremost experts on constitutional law" and "a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution." The Hoover Institution is, ofcourse, a right-wing think tank; McConnell himself has endorsed a constitutional amendment to ban abortion.
Winn quotes McConnell as saying that Bork's death "should cause a lot of people to be doing some soul searching about the way in which the judicial confirmation process is conducted, because his nomination battle was really the first – and hit a new low – in terms of inaccurate and distorted characterizations of his record and attacks on his character." Winn provides no counterpoint to McConnell.
Winn also features Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice , failing to identify the right-wing nature of he and his organization.
Winn additionally features Steven G. Calabresi, who "served as a law clerk to Judge Bork and was his biographer." Calabresi clearly cannot be expected to provide an objective opinion about Bork, and he fulfills that promise, likening Bork to St. Thomas More.
Despite CNS' mission statement to "fairly present all legitimate sides of a story," Winn can't be bothered to do that here. There's no mention, for example, of Bork's key role in President Nixon's Watergate-era "Saturday Night Massacre" firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox. It seems reporting such facts is forbidden at the Media Research Center.
