Tale of Two Rulings

Media bias is never more obvious than with the reporting of the two Supreme Court rulings today. First, we have the Guantanamo Bay case from this morning, as noted earlier. Take the first paragraph of the story, which obviously favors the Bush administration.

A closely divided Supreme Court said on Monday it would not decide whether Guantanamo prisoners have the right to challenge their confinement before U.S. federal judges, avoiding a test of President George W. Bush's powers in the war on terrorism.

Now, let's contrast how a closely divided court, which was actually 6-3, is portrayed in the cockamamie ruling on global warming.

In a defeat for the Bush administration, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a U.S. government agency has the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming.

By a 5-4 vote, the nation's highest court said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "has offered no reasoned explanation" for its refusal to regulate carbon dioxide and other emissions from new cars and trucks that contribute to climate change.

The ruling in one of the most important environmental cases to reach the Supreme Court marked the first high court decision in a case involving global warming.

So now a 5-4 vote isn't reported as closely divided, it's simply a defeat for the Bush administration. And the case which wasn't really all that closely divided, isn't that a defeat for the terrorist supporters from the ACLU?

Watch and see which of these cases gets more coverage on the networks, as if you have to guess.

More on the media reaction to the latter case at NewsBusters.