This was from over the weekend, but it's still worth taking a look because I think it helps illustrate the media's deliberate attempt to gin up phony controversy via purposefully dishonest coverage of the Sotomayor nomination.

Following the the round table discussion from ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos, the segment was posted online with this headline:

Sotomayor Filibuster?

The segment featured guests senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas). Naturally, Stephanopoulos wanted to talk about the “Latina woman” quote, and naturally, Stephanopoulos refused to provide any context for the quote, which has become the Beltway Rule of Law for covering Sotomayor.

But notice the headline and how ABC News stressed the possibility of a filibuster. This was almost as bad as what CBS's Bob Schieffer did simultaneously on Fact the Nation Sunday morning, when he asked Cornyn if Sotomayor's nomination might be doomed. Keep in mind that on Sunday there was, I believe, exactly one Republican senator who was on the record opposing Sotomayor's nominations, but Schieffer wanted to know if the nomination might be sunk.

The same with ABC--how could a filibuster be in the offering by Republicans to squash Obama's pick if Republicans themselves did not oppose her? In fact, in the discussion between Schumer and Cornyn on ABC's This Week, the word “filibuster” was never even mentioned in connection to Sotomayor. The topic did not come up because virtually nobody who's paying attention, and who is being honest about the situation (which eliminates our press corps), thinks an anti-Sotomayor filibusters is remote possibility, as of today. Yet ABC did it's best to manufacture news by inserting the filibuster word into its Sotomayor headline.

Again, it's part of a pathetic, deliberate attempt to concoct news.