Media obsess over Obama's comments, ignore Bush's highlighting of Thomas' "great empathy"
SUMMARY: Media figures and outlets have focused on President Obama's statement that empathy is one of the qualifications he would seek in a Supreme Court nominee, but they have not noted that then-President George H.W. Bush cited "great empathy" in his remarks announcing his selection of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.
In reporting on President Obama's search for a Supreme Court nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter, media figures and outlets have often focused on the purported controversy over Obama's May 1 statement that he considered the "quality of empathy" one of the qualifications he would seek in a nominee. But those media have not noted that then-President George H.W. Bush cited Clarence Thomas' "great empathy" in his remarks announcing his selection of Thomas to serve on the Supreme Court.
From Bush's July 1, 1991, remarks (accessed from the Nexis database):
After graduation from Yale Law School, he worked for then Missouri attorney general John Danforth, and spent 2 1/2 years litigating cases of all descriptions. In 1977, Judge Thomas practiced law in the private sector, and in 1979, he rejoined Senator Danforth as a legislative assistant in the U.S. Senate. In 1981, President Reagan appointed him Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the Department of Education. From 1982 to 1990, he served as President Reagan's Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And I appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1990.
I have followed this man's career for some time, and he has excelled in everything that he has attempted. He is a delightful and warm, intelligent person who has great empathy and a wonderful sense of humor. He's also a fiercely independent thinker with an excellent legal mind, who believes passionately in equal opportunity for all Americans. He will approach the cases that come before the Court with a commitment to deciding them fairly, as the facts and the law require.
Judge Thomas' life is a model for all Americans, and he's earned the right to sit on this nation's highest Court. And I am very proud, indeed, to nominate him for this position, and I trust that the Senate will confirm this able man promptly.
Surely he had someone else in mind besides Clarence Thomas.
And, Bork was not unqualified due to his opinions, but due to his part in the Saturday Night Massacre.
HYPOCRISY INFINITUM!!!!!
Respectfully.
"There are none so blind as those who will not see." Those on the left do not see the media bias because everything reported with a leftist tilt looks perfectly normal to them.
Their perception is such that anything that doesn't have a leftist tilt has to be right wing media misinformation.
What are your thoughts on the media repeating such lies as "Al Gore claimed to have invented the internet," and the war drums being beat to go to Iraq? If the media is as liberal as you claim it to be, why were these lies repeated, among many, many others, ad nauseum?
Or is liberal media bias just an article of faith, something you just have to believe in?
My remarks are often (almost always) wiped clean off of conservative message boards. You get no sympathy from me.
"WASHINGTON — When Jody Richards saw a homeless man begging outside a downtown McDonald's recently, he bought the man a cheeseburger. There's nothing unusual about that, except that Richards is homeless, too, and the 99-cent cheeseburger was an outsized chunk of the $9.50 he'd earned that day from panhandling.
The generosity of poor people isn't so much rare as rarely noticed, however. In fact, America's poor donate more, in percentage terms, than higher-income groups do."
Off topic, I know. Sorry guys. There are some interesting facts about immigrants in the article, too. When the authoritarian right start sounding the alarms about Sotomayor and immigration, (you KNOW they will) you can counter with examples of kindness and generosity of the people the right will try to demonize.
Now what commenter's are saying on fox news..."I agree with Jay123. We will take this country back......I see the comments by the whacko left here, and how they just love it when conservatives are angry....We do not need a person that will enforce our rules of law.....
What dose all this accomplish. Fast opinions without comprehensive dialog is what wrecks a society. Its like going to a secret club in a tree house and screaming "lets get them, look what they are doing to us," or in other words, I have no responsibility for the way that I feel..I understand that some will disagree.
I find it quite ironic.
I have only been on MMFA for about a couple of weeks and watching and commenting on conservative misinformation seems to be what this site is for.Of course your're gonna get the average venting comment.You know,the guy that's just blowing off some steam but hey,that's the way it goes.I don't agree with you,and I'm glad you understand.
BTW,isn't your comment off topic?
Go away jackass. You bitter fools screwed the pooch, aka America. The best thing you can do is recognize your screw up, live the consequences and pray you grow up smarter than you are now.
You played the responses as planned.
1. Assumed I am some Ideologue on the right.
2. Couldn't see the similarity of short sided hate coming from both isles as I was trying to convey.
3. Have no idea of what activism I do.. That I can actually influence..
Thank you for the results. You are now part of a larger study here in Cambridge.
Can't wait to read your "study." Keep us all posted on your progress. I Have a feeling you're going to miss a great deal of comprehensive dialogue by projecting your quick opinions on us all.
You're a mess, dude. Schizophrenia can be ameliorated with physician care and medication. Seek help.