Media Bias Essay - How Different Sides Discussed the Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings

On October 31, 2005, Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. was nominated by President Bush to the Supreme Court--to fill a vacancy after Sandra Day O'Connor stepped down--and, after a long series of hearings, was confirmed by a vote of 58-42 by the U.S. Senate on January 31, 2006. Alito's confirmation before the final vote received a great deal of press coverage. The liberal-biased media claimed Alito promulgated "right wing fanaticism," and right-wing editors shot back. Clearly, when examining coverage …

…mass readership, and, usually, cannot afford to cater to one side of the issue. As a final product, then, Newsweek articles are generally more objective and unbiased. In this case, Newsweek did a much better job of reporting the story because it thoroughly examined the past decisions of Alito. It gave the reader all of the facts with none of the bickering; this is preferable as it allows the reader to develop his own opinion.