Not the biggest deal, but emblematic of how the Washington press
corps consider anyone to the right of center, no matter if barely so,
to be a "conservative," while anyone who strays at all from a perfect
liberal line is not worthy of an ideological label.
Setting up Sunday's Face the Nation, CBS's Bob Schieffer described
guest Evan Bayh simply as "the Indiana Democrat" while tagging
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is every bit, if not more, off
the conservative reservation as Bayh is off the liberal one, as a
"conservative Republican." Schieffer:
Today on Face the Nation: Is Washington broken? We'll talk to Evan Bayh, the Indiana Democrat. He's become so disillusioned with the Senate he's leaving, but he's still trying to find a way to ease the partisan rancor by teaming with conservative Republican Lindsey Graham who's also here to talk about that...
At no time during the March 7 show did Schieffer ever label Bayh as a liberal.
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here [1] to follow him on Twitter.