-By Warner Todd Huston
Over the last several days in the last week of June the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) handed down two important decisions, one striking down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and one striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) leading to a renewed national dialog in the issues. But for CNN the rulings were just another opportunity to analyze the decisions from a decidedly leftward point of view.
According to a review of CNN’s coverage of the June 25 and 26 Supreme Court decisions conducted by the Media Research Center, the cable network’s coverage of the rulings showed a decided leftward tilt.
In the case of the June 25 Voting Act decision, CNN featured four times as many critics of the decision as supporters.
Tuesday’s SCOTUS decision struck down the part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that mandated that southern states must apply to federal courts to get approval for re-districting because in the past those states had suppressed the minority vote. The court maintained that such discrimination was finally a thing of the past and that voters in these same states need no longer fear re-districting used as a weapon of voter suppression
During its coverage, CNN featured eight analysts who opposed the ruling but only two who supported it.
Similarly, after the June 26 release of the twin SCOTUS decisions striking down DOMA and the decision to vacate the vote of California’s electorate to initiate a one-man-one-woman marriage amendment to their state constitution, CNN loaded its programs with liberals that supported the two rulings.
The cable news network featured roughly three times as many liberal supporters of the gay marriage decisions as detractors with 20 supporters and only seven who opposed or viewed the rulings negatively.
“The common denominator,” the MRC says, is that “in both instances, CNN permitted the liberal viewpoint to overwhelm its coverage.”
“Yet, CNN continues to act as if it’s somehow a middle-of-the-road network between the hard-left MSNBC and more conservative Fox News.”
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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