Most anonymously written CNSNews.com articles — credited only to “CNSNews.com Staff” — are innocuous, generally serving up a straight quote of political figures. A May 29 article, though, may very well lacking a byline because no CNS writer wanted to put their name on an article attacking a judge as too old because he issued a ruling CNS bigwigs didn’t like. Here’s how it starts:
Judge William J. Bauer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, who is now 92 years old, yesterday that says women have a constitutional right to abort an unborn baby specifically because of the baby’s sex, race or disability.
Bauer, who was appointed to the appeals court by President Gerald Ford in 1974, published the opinion on April 19, 2018—when he was 91.
The focus on Bauer’s age was no passing mention. The anonymous CNS writer highlighted Bauer’s background, further emphasizing his age:
The biography of Judge William J. Bauer posted online by the Federal Judicial Center (and linked to the webpage of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit) says he was born in 1926 in Chicago. The Chicago Tribune published a profile of Judge Bauer in 1988 that noted his birthday was Sept. 15, 1926.
Bauer, according to the biography, graduated from Elmhurst College in 1949 and from DePaul University College of Law in 1952. President Richard Nixon nominated him as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1971. President Gerald Ford nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in 1974.
Since 1994—a quarter of a century ago—Bauer has been serving in “senior status” on the appeals court.
The article concludes with an explanation from a federal court website of “what it means to be a judge on ‘senior status.'”
Unmentioned is the fact that, regardless of Bauer’s age, the judge’s ruling is apparently legally sound enough that even a conservative-leaning Supreme Court let it stand.
That’s called media bias. The fact that the writer is hiding behind a generic byline simply means we can blame the entire CNS staff for that bias.