FAIR ACTION ALERT: DEMAND NEWSWEEK CORRECT ROBERTS ERRORS

[Douglas Carpenter]

From FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting)

link :

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2608

"ACTION ALERT:
Misjudging Roberts
Newsweek dismisses accurate information on judge's record

August 2, 2005

Like much of the mainstream media coverage, Newsweek magazine's August
1 cover story on Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts was
overwhelmingly positive. But Newsweek went even further than most, dismissing as
inaccurate stories that depicted Roberts as a conservative
partisan--even though it was Newsweek, in fact, that was getting the stories wrong.

Newsweek led off its report by saying that "true believers on the left
and the right, hoping to rouse their armies for a showdown over John
Roberts, immediately trumpeted two 'facts'.... Both intriguing items
about Roberts, widely reported in the mainstream media, served as fodder
for the talkshow blab wars. Problem is, they aren't true."

The first supposed falsehood: "Liberal bloggers floated conspiracy
theories about the behind-the-scenes role he played on Bush's legal team in
the epic court fight after the 2000 election, a contribution that
supposedly earned the president's undying gratitude." The reality,
according to Newsweek: "Roberts's role in the case of Bush v. Gore was minimal,
according to colleagues who worked with him. Roberts did briefly go to
Florida to be on hand as a legal consultant, but he was preoccupied
with working on the adoption of a baby son."

As it turns out, the liberal bloggers' "conspiracy theories" were
closer to the mark, as more careful reporting revealed that Roberts was an
important part of the Bush legal team. According to a report in the
Miami Herald (7/27/05), Roberts worked "as legal consultant, lawsuit
editor and prep coach for arguments before the nation's highest court,
according to the man who drafted him for the job." The Herald noted that
Roberts was considered one of the top names for the effort, which he
worked on for "a week to 10 days"; as Bush adviser Ted Cruz told the paper,
"There was no one better for the job."

Newsweek's other gotcha: "Right-wingers smugly assumed Roberts's
membership in the Federalist Society, an organization that has taken on an
almost cultish mystique as both incubator and old boys' network for
conservative jurists and lawyers in Washington." Here Newsweek was
following the line of the White House, which went so far as to demand
corrections from media outlets that had reported Roberts was a Federalist
Society member. But as the Washington Post revealed (7/25/05), Roberts was
not only listed in the group's 1997-98 leadership directory--he's named
as a member of the Washington chapter's steering committee.

Dismissing these accurate stories served to bolster Newsweek's claim
that Roberts was "conservative, but apolitical," and that his
confirmation was a sure thing. As the magazine put it, "Roberts's marginal
involvement as a political activist is revealing. It suggests that Roberts is
not the hard-line ideologue that true believers on both sides had hoped
for.... Barring unforeseen and unlikely bombshells, Roberts seems
destined to be confirmed without the kind of stormy melodrama that boosts
cable-TV ratings and fills the coffers of activist groups in Washington."

Indeed, Newsweek could hardly contain its enthusiasm about a nominee
who "sees the law as a set of time-tested rules that allow people to work
out their differences and to trust each other--a body of principles and
precedents that bring order and predictability to civic life, which
have the effect not of dividing, but of harmonizing and unifying society."
The magazine concluded that "from all that can be gleaned about
Roberts, he will decide each case, one at a time, with great intellectual
rigor and honesty."

Given that Newsweek led its story with mischaracterizations about
Roberts' record, "intellectual rigor and honesty" would compel the magazine
to set the record straight for its readers. But this week's issue of
the magazine (8/8/05) did not correct the article's inaccurate
assertions.


ACTION:
Ask Newsweek to correct the inaccurate claims in its August 1 story
about John G. Roberts' role in the Florida recount and his connections to
the Federalist Society.


CONTACT:
Newsweek
[e-mail]

To read the Newsweek article, go to:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8683401/site/newsweek/ "

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http://www.iwtnews.com/

[blm]

1. Will do.

.

[Douglas Carpenter]

2. kik

.