Totenberg "Surprised How Very, Very Conservative [Roberts] Was"

Media Research Center ^ | August 1, 2005 | Brent H. Baker

[kennedy]

A parody of herself? NPR's Nina Totenberg, who has tagged Supreme Court nominee John Roberts as "very conservative," "very, very conservative" and "very, very, very conservative," as well as "a really conservative guy," "a hardline conservative" and "a clear conservative," to say nothing of being "a conservative Catholic," on Inside Washington over the weekend relayed that after she "spent five hours reviewing all of his documents from when he worked in the Justice Department," she "was actually quite surprised at how, how very, very conservative he was." Apparently, she didn't listen to herself.

Inside Washington is a weekend show carried Saturday nights at 7pm local time by NewsChannel 8, a Washington, DC area all-news channel owned by the ABC affiliate, and Sunday mornings at 10am, right after This Week, by that affiliate, WJLA-TV.

On the edition aired over this past weekend, Totenberg asserted: "I've known John Roberts for years. I think it's a very sensible pick in all serious ways. But I must say that when I was, spent five hours reviewing all of his documents from when he worked in the Justice Department, I was actually quite surprised at how, how very, very conservative he was. He fought with people much more senior than he was, who we would all consider very conservative like Ted Olson and Rex Lee, who was Solicitor General. They weren't conservative enough for him. And even William Bradford Reynolds, the head of the civil rights division, on a couple of occasions, there was Roberts saying to the Attorney General you shouldn't authorize this employment discrimination lawsuit, Reynolds is wrong about it."

Previous CyberAlert items on Totenberg's labeling of Roberts, both with pictures of her:

# July 21 CyberAlert: There's no doubt in NPR reporter Nina Totenberg's mind that Judge John Roberts is "very conservative," it's just a matter of how "very." On NPR's All Things Considered on Tuesday night, she prefaced "conservative" with three verys, describing him as "a very, very, very conservative man." But in a taped soundbite on the next day's Good Morning America on ABC, she cut back to two modifiers, dubbing him merely "a very, very conservative man." For the quotes in full: www.mrc.org

# July 25 CyberAlert: NPR's Nina Totenberg, who last week tagged Supreme Court nominee John Roberts as "very, very conservative" and "very, very, very conservative," on Inside Washington over the weekend described him as merely "very conservative." But she couldn't resist adding a modifier every time she applied the conservative label, also dubbing him "a really conservative guy," "a hardline conservative" and "a clear conservative." Plus, she emphasized how he's "a conservative Catholic." See: www.mrc.org

[Alia]

Oh no! The left is using the "words". Oh NO! Man the beachheads, watch for the onslaught of legal lefty opinion! Ack.. run ... awaaaaaayyy. Not.

[CT]

Totenburg.

I'm old enough to remember that she was one of the main attack dogs on Clarence Thomas also.

[pollyannaish]

Good for you. I'm glad we live in the same state...and are on the same team!

I always believe that becoming a conservative boils down to two things: learning to take responsibility for your own behavior; and finally figuring out that no matter how much you want it to be...life is not perfect, people are not perfect, bad things happen, life is messy and no matter how much we legislate, it will still be that way. And we find a way to be happy anyway.

With your attitude you will accomplish much in your life and that is the best way to honor your friends life. Good for BOTH of you.

[pollyannaish]

You know, I kind of remember the Bork thing, but didn't pay that much attention at the time and only caught up years later. But the charges against Bork were somehow less personal and therefore while unfair, not as subhuman. And Bork did not have a "made for tv" look, which worked to the Dems advantage.

But there was something especially grotesque about the way Thomas was attacked...in a personal, intimate way that did not allow him to respond at all. He was asked to sit there and take it like a "man."

It was if Anita Hill came at him with a hammer but he was not allowed to defend himself because she was a "girl." She struck me as being a little disengaged from reality somehow, as if she was living in some sort of bizzaro fantasy. Worse yet, the whole thing had a strange undercurrent of racism.

It still gives me shivers to think about it. And I remember the stricken look of his wife, sitting behind him. You could tell she wanted to run up to him and comfort him but could not.

[CBart95]

Quick! before the truth serum wears off.
You are a decent compassionate person who sees directly into the "heart of evil" in all of this circus.
With clean clear brave eyes you see the utter shamlessness of these dreadful dances of death and in your purity you cast them out.

Hip Hip Hooray!!!!!!

[pollyannaish]

What? Did I offend you in some way? Are you making fun of the moment when I actually realized what a dope I was?

[CBart95]

Mother Nature looks askance at those who trifle with sincerity.

[pollyannaish]

Ah. I see. I read up on you in forum. No problem, I understand better now. Take me for what I am or don't. And yes, Mother Nature will get me eventually.

And with all sincerity: Have a good evening.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

When I wrote my weekly column for the school paper at Texas A&M, my mean ol' editor commented on the use of "VERY"...

He claimed Mark Twain said that people use very only as a polite form as damn...

I am not sure if this is true or not, but in trying to get your point across, it is very sophomoric as a writing tool. I pushed the "I BELIEVE" button then and there, and have since avoided the word like the plague..

[goldstategop]

Good Lord! Nina Totenberg makes it sound like John Roberts has watched Long John Silver movies. Conservatism is something kept in the closet like being gay or its a perverse private pleasure, like watching porn. No conservative should out themselves. Its like to the Left, we're the scourge of the planet!

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[hosepipe]

Nina must've missed her communist cell meeting that night.. at pBS..