After a year of Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his party pushing to eliminate the legislative filibuster, news outlets have pushed a distorted and often biased narrative on this topic.
News coverage of the Senate filibuster debate often omits or downplays Democrats’ recent hypocrisy on the issue and fails to inform Americans of the role the filibuster serves in the Senate, according to Thomas Jipping, a senior legal fellow for the Heritage Foundation.
“I think many people get the impression that this is a new innovation that, you know, Republicans came up with just recently to stymie Democrats from doing what they want to do,” said Jipping, who worked as a staffer for former Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, for 15 years. “But I think the media would serve the country better by a little bit of a civics lesson that the Senate is designed to handle legislation differently than the House and the requirement of a supermajority to end debate, even though a simple majority can still pass bills.”
Instead, much of the coverage of the filibuster framing the debate mimics Democratic and liberal talking points. For example, the media often frames how eliminating the filibuster is necessary to save democracy in the United States.
For the past year, Democrats have labeled Republican states passing election laws as the “new Jim Crow,” referring to the term for laws that enforced segregation. This is another talking point the media has adopted in their coverage about the filibuster and voting rights, with show transcripts showing the phrase mentioned over four dozen times on CNN and MSNBC each.
“I don’t think many Americans will buy the suggestion that we are the same country today as we were during Jim Crow,” Jipping said. “I don’t think most Americans will accept the idea that when it’s easier to vote than ever, that somehow democracy and voting rights are hanging by a thread.”
Andrew Kugle is an editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to andrew.kugle@fox.com and on Twitter: @AndrewJKugle.
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