Media outlets ignored dispute over
Specter's refusal to swear in Gonzales
Media Matters
February 7, 2006
Summary: Most major news outlets did not report the dispute over Senate
Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter's refusal to swear in Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales at the committee's hearing on the Bush
administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program.
In reporting on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's February 6 testimony
before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the Bush administration's
warrantless domestic surveillance program, a number of major print and
broadcast media outlets failed to report the dispute and the party-line
rejection of the Democrats' demand that Gonzales be sworn in, or even the fact
that committee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) did not swear in Gonzales
even though Gonzales had reportedly agreed to testify under oath.
As the Los Angeles Times reported on February 7: "The hearing's tone was set
at the start as Democrats disputed the decision by Judiciary Committee Chairman
Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) not to require Gonzales to testify under oath. Gonzales
expressed a willingness to take the oath, but Specter said it was not
necessary, noting that administration officials usually were not sworn in
before testifying to Senate committees." Committee Democrats countered by
noting Specter's assertion that Gonzales had not objected to being sworn in,
that Gonzales had provided sworn testimony on domestic surveillance in the
past, that he had been sworn in on previous occasions other than his
confirmation hearing, and that Republican senators had insisted that former
Attorney General Janet Reno be sworn in for appearances other than her
confirmation hearing. Ultimately, in a 10-8 party-line vote, the committee
refused to swear in Gonzales.
While Specter's refusal to require that Gonzales testify under oath does not
shield Gonzales from liability if he said something untrue, it did spare him
the inevitable front-page photo of the attorney general with his hand up,
swearing to tell the truth, a courtesy that Democrats said was not similarly
extended to Clinton administration officials.
Nevertheless, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today
omitted from their February 7 coverage of the hearing any mention of the
dispute over Specter's refusal to require Gonzales to testify under oath
despite Gonzales's purported willingness to do so. ABC's World News Tonight,
the CBS Evening News, NBC's Nightly News, and PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
similarly failed to mention in their February 6 broadcasts that Gonzales's
testimony was unsworn.
In his February 7 "Washington Sketch" column, Washington Post columnist Dana
Milbank noted the committee's dispute over whether to swear in Gonzales.
However, the Post's news coverage made no mention of Specter's refusal to swear
in Gonzales at the February 6 hearing.
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