Media Matters: Network newscasts ignore politicization of Department of Justice hiring practices

[DeepModem Mom]

Media Matters for America: Thu, Jun 26, 2008
Network evening newscasts ignore IG report finding politicization of hiring practices in DOJ honors program

Continuing a pattern of ignoring developments in the ongoing investigation into the firing of several U.S. attorneys, none of the broadcast networks' June 24 or 25 evening newscasts reported on the Justice Department Inspector General's findings of politicization of hiring practices in several of the department's recruiting programs.

As The New York Times reported, the report, released June 24, "is the first in a series of internal reviews growing out of last year's controversy over the dismissals of nine United States attorneys," and, according to the Times, found that "Justice Department officials illegally used 'political or ideological' factors in elite recruiting programs in recent years, tapping law school graduates with Federalist Society membership or other conservative credentials over more qualified candidates with liberal-sounding résumés." The report focused on the hiring practices associated with the Justice Department's Honors Program, which it described as "the exclusive means by which the Department hires recent law school graduates and judicial law clerks who do not have prior legal experience," and the Summer Law Intern Program, which "is the Department's hiring program for paid summer interns." The report stated that "beginning in 2002, a Screening Committee composed primarily of politically appointed employees from the Department's leadership offices had to approve all Honors Program and SLIP candidates for interviews by the (department's) components." As the Times reported, the report "found that 'many qualified candidates' were rejected" by the Screening Committee "from two key recruiting programs ... because of what was perceived as their liberal bent."...

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As Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted, the broadcast networks' evening newscasts -- ABC's World News, NBC's Nightly News, and the CBS Evening News -- initially were slow to report on the controversy surrounding the dismissal of several U.S. attorneys and have a history of ignoring developments relating to the controversy. For instance, the CBS Evening News did not cover former Justice official Monica Goodling's May 23, 2007, testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, in which Goodling admitted she "crossed the line" and "may have gone too far" by taking "inappropriate political considerations into account" in hiring career Justice officials, potentially a violation of the law....

http://mediamatters.org/items/200806260009?f=h_latest