By Scott Whitlock
Editor’s note. This is excerpted from a post at Newsbusters.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is “to the right,” the “far right.” CBS and The Washington Post on Wednesday conducted a collective freak out over the possibility that the new judge really is in the mold of the late Antonin Scalia. The two outlets collectively used the terms “right” or “far right” eight times.
On CBS This Morning, co-host Gayle King cited the Post and alerted viewers that Gorsuch “appears to be asserting himself as a force on the Supreme Court’s right.” Repeating herself, she underlined, “Gorsuch fills the seat of the late Antonin Scalia and some say he’s perhaps further to the right.”
In case anyone was unclear, King concluded, “He is also further to the right than almost all his colleagues on gun rights.” For those keeping score, that’s three descriptions of Gorsuch being on the “right” in just 24 seconds.
The headline [in a front page story for Wednesday’s Washington Post, reporter Robert Barnes] blared, “Gorsuch asserts himself early as force on Supreme Court’s right.” Barnes declared, “The bottom line, according to most accounts, is that Gorsuch is a Scalia 2.0, perhaps further to the right.”
Later, the journalist continued his labeling, this time describing the dreaded “far right.”
The views he expressed on the final day came in dissents or concurrences he wrote or joined with other justices. He has sided far more frequently with Justice Clarence Thomas on the court’s far right than with Roberts, closer to the center.
The Post used “right” or far right” five times. CBS and the newspaper have not repeatedly fretted about the “far left” Obama judges, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
On CNN, Tuesday, Chris Cuomo and Jeffrey Toobin fretted over the “very conservative” Gorsuch.