Election Results: GOP the Victors; Dems, 'Media Elite' the Vanquished

by Allie Martin and Jody Brown
November 5, 2004

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(AgapePress) - The president of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) says President George W. Bush and the Republican Party now have the opportunity to easily approve the president's judicial nominations. And a media watchdog has a surprise: John Kerry was not the only big loser on Election Day.

During the past four years, many of President Bush's judicial nominees were rejected after filibusters led by Democratic senators. One of those leading the charge against the nominees was South Dakota Senator Tom Dashle, whose re-election bid was turned away on Tuesday. Dr. Richard Land, president of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, says gains by Republicans in the U.S. Senate -- combined with Dashle's defeat -- has changed the process.

Dr. Richard Land

"It's impossible to overestimate the significance of the defeat of 'Puff the Magic Daschle' in South Dakota," Land says. "He was the chief obstructionist in the United States Senate." And in Land's opinion, the incumbent's absence in Senate chambers constitutes more than just a loss. "The obstructionists have lost their leader; they have lost their commanding general. And with a 55-vote majority in the Senate, the Republicans ... have the votes to change the rules."

Land says the GOP can now change the rules to allow a judicial nominee to be approved with a simple majority, as opposed to the current two-thirds vote now required by the Senate. The SBC spokesman recommends the president start lining up conservative, Bible-believing judicial nominees.

Secular Media's Loss of Credibility
Meanwhile, Land says even though the Democratic Party failed in its bid for the White House and lost ground in both houses of Congress, the big loser on Tuesday was the secular national media. He points out that throughout the presidential campaign, the mainstream media made little or no effort to hide their bias.

"They put aside all pretense of objectivity and neutrality, and shamelessly campaigned for John Kerry," he offers. "They lost credibility, and their candidate lost."

Land is not alone in his indictment of the media during Election 2004. The Media Research Center, a media watchdog group based just outside the nation's capital, has documented what it calls "the ten worst media distortions of Campaign 2004."

MRC president Brent Bozell says the liberal news media was one of the bigger issues in the campaign. "It is a fact," he says. "The media chose sides early and have acted as extensions of the Democratic National Committee and the Kerry-Edwards campaign."

As evidence of that charge, Bozell's group includes on its list of "media distortions" the following:

• "Dan Rather's Forgery Fiasco" -- MRC calls this a "hatchet job on President Bush."
• "The Attack on the Swift Boat Veterans" -- The media, according to MRC, first ignored this group then "turned on these honorable men with a vengeance."
• "The Networks' Convention Double-Standard" -- After touting speakers at the Democratic National Convention, "journalists turned sour" when covering the GOP's nominating convention, says MRC.

According to Bozell, the MRC report "proves beyond all doubt that the elite media are not objective or fair or balanced." He says in their effort to defeat George W. Bush, the "liberal partisans" in the media sacrificed their credibility.