As the media struggle to come up with an effective counter for Senator Ted Cruz’s 22-hour quasi-filibuster against Obamacare, they have turned more and more to outright mockery. That mockery comes in marked contrast to their worshipful attitude toward Texas state senator Wendy Davis’ filibuster of a Texas pro-life bill that banned abortion after 20 weeks. Davis’ filibuster brought near-orgasmic attention from the mainstream press.
The Associated Press tweeted a #StandWithWendy hashtag during Davis’ filibuster; they did no such thing with Cruz’s quasi-filibuster. CNN profiled Davis with the headline, “Wendy Davis: From teen mom to Harvard Law to famous filibuster”; CNN’s headline today reads, “Obamacare survives,” with sub-headline “Hear Cruz cite Seuss.” The New York Times ran a piece titled, “Spotlight on Wendy Davis, the Democrats’ Big Hope,” another piece calling her “the Charm” and another titled “In Texas, a Senator’s Stand Catches the Spotlight”; today, the Times ran a sneering editorial labeling Cruz an “embarrassment.” After Davis’ filibuster, she was asked tough questions from CNN’s Anderson Cooper: “How are you even awake today? What was it like standing for that long? It was a remarkable scene. Did you have any idea that it would grow like this?” Today, CNN journalists openly mocked Cruz. ABC News reported on Davis, “3 Things Wendy Davis Accomplished With Her Filibuster; on Cruz, ABC News reported, “Cruz Quotes ‘Duck Dynasty,’ Toby Keith in Night-Long Attack on Obamacare.” The Washington Post wrote “6 Key Moments From Wendy Davis’ Filibuster”; they also ran “The best of Ted Cruz’s marathon speech,” complete with Ashton Kutcher, Dr. Seuss, and White Castle.
The bias is so bad that even Dylan Byers of Politico noted, “you can forgive conservatives for being upset with the mainstream media’s coverage of the Cruz affair. When a Democrat like Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis filibusters against abortion restrictions, she is elevated to hero status, her tennis shoes become totems. When Cruz grandstands against Obamacare, he is a laughingstock.”
The only folks proving themselves a laughingstock are the so-called objective voices of the mainstream media.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
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