"Do you think you're going to Hell?" This is apparently considered a highly newsworthy question by the Bari Weiss-led "CBS Evening News."
The theological questioner was radical Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver (N.J.-10), who wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The target was acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. CBS not only aired McIver's sound bite, but anchor Tony Dokoupil quoted it in his introduction to correspondent Nicole Sganga's very one-sided story.
The Republicans hold majorities in the House and the Senate, but if you watch how hearings are covered by the TV networks, they imply the Democrats are the gavel-wielders controlling the proceedings. Sganga loaded up four angry Democrat sound bites to one Republican. Democrat Rep. Daniel Goldman (N.Y.-10) yelled: "If you don't want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one."
By contrast, Republican Rep. August Pfluger (TX-11) accurately described the Democrats: "It seems like one side of the aisle is in favor of open borders and wants to abolish ICE." Since Republicans praised the Trump deportations, that was somehow not news.
ABC's "World News Tonight" covered the hearing, promoting two Democratic sound bites and two Republican. But one Republican was chewing out ICE, and the other was granted just six words. So that's three to one, at best.
Or consider the House hearing with Attorney General Pam Bondi. The "CBS Evening News" piece on that was three Democrats to two Republicans, if you count Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-04), who demonizes Trump on the Epstein matter. ABC's Rachel Scott featured two sound bites of Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-7), two from Democratic Rep. Becca Balint, (VT-1), one from Democrat Rep. Deborah Ross (NC-2), and one from Trump-hating Republican Massie.
"NBC Nightly News" and Hallie Jackson brought four sound bites to zero — and one angry Epstein survivor. On NBC's "Today," Ryan Nobles repeated the unanimous tilt, with three Democrats and Massie and two angry Epstein survivors.
The theater in these reports was exactly as the Democrats constructed it, with Jayapal telling the Epstein survivors in the hearing room to rise so Bondi could apologize to them for the Trump Justice Department messing up in its Epstein files release.
At the same time, the networks skip hearings that didn't please the Democrat narrative, like the House Ways & Means Committee hearing on "Foreign Influence In American Non-Profits," specifically leftist non-profits that fund anti-ICE and pro-Hamas protesters. They can't abide any discussion of the notion that the protest organizers they use in their stories are paid to make "news."
These same networks clearly enjoyed the completely one-sided approach of the Pelosi-Picked Panel on the Jan. 6 riot, which only included two House Republicans whom Pelosi appointed. Almost every minute of the hearings was aired live on all these networks, and no one on that committee ever spoke a word against the Democrats. It was perfectly partisan, often presented with carefully edited testimony clips to make all the DNC points.
No Republican could criticize Speaker Nancy Pelosi's failure to protect the Capitol, or change the subject to the race riots of 2020, which caused up to $2 billion in property damage and at least 25 deaths. Those, apparently, were the "good" riots, described as a "rebellion" or a "racial reckoning."
In this Congress, Democrats have not been removed from the hearing rooms, and all their screechy rants are promoted by their supportive media outlets, while Republican arguments that Trump has accomplished something are largely left on the cutting-room floor.
Anyone arguing that hearings are too combative and aren't substantive should consult exactly what the networks choose to broadcast on television, and what kind of behavior they have rewarded with national attention.
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.