CNSNews.com initial coverage of the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson was surprisingly balanced at the time, doing an unusually decent job of serving up both sides with most articles written by rote stenographer Melanie Arter:
- Biden to Announce Nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to SCOTUS
- Conservatives Say SCOTUS Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson Will Be a Radical Judicial Activist
- Schumer: ‘Ketanji Brown Jackson Will be a Justice Who Will…Protect the Rights of…the Voiceless and Vulnerable’
- Biden: SCOTUS Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson ‘Comes from a Family of Law Enforcement’
- Biden’s SCOTUS Nominee Sparks Criticism from the Right, Praise from the Left
That was quickly followed, however, by a March 2 column by editor Terry Jeffrey in which he attacked Jackson for having co-authored an amicus brief 20 years ago endorsing the idea of buffer zones outside abortion clinics to protect patients from getting harassed by protesters:
For Jackson, presuming she agreed with the amicus brief that she co-authored, it was a good and constitutional thing for someone to approach a pregnant woman outside an abortion clinic for the purpose of escorting her inside to kill her unborn child.
But it was a bad thing — that a state could prohibit by law — for someone to approach that same woman outside that same clinic to try to persuade her to save her child.
Jeffrey didn’t explain why a woman should be forced to be subjected to a message she has indicated that she doesn’t want to hear.
CNS, even more surprisingly, largely left her alone for the next few weeks, save for a March 18 column by Hans Bader’s dumb racial take complaining there would be too many black people on the Supreme Court if Jackson was confirmed.
But as Jackson’s confirmation hearing neared, it was time for CNS to fully embrace the anti-Jackson talking points its Media Research Center and fellow right-wing activists were unleashing on her. Susan Jones devoted a March 21 article to Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s complaint that Jackson wouldn’t take a stand on “court-packing.” Abortion-obsessed Jeffrey rehashed his 20-year-old complaint against Jackson in another article the same day:
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who co-authored an amicus brief for Mass. NARAL while working for a private law firm in 2001, and has now been nominated to the Supreme Court by President Joe Biden, offered her thanks to God at her Senate confirmation today.
“Your careful attention to my nomination demonstrates you’re dedication to the crucial role that the Senate plays in this constitutional process. And I thank you,” Brown told the committee.
“And while I’m on the subject of gratitude I must also pause to reaffirm my thanks to God. For it is faith that sustains me at this moment,” she said.
Jeffrey didn’t explain how the act of co-authoring a legal brief is contradictory to having faith in God, as he suggests.
CNS would eventually abandon all pretense of journalistic balance and go all in on amplifying right-wing anti-Jackson narratives. More on that soon.