In our latest round of News Comparisons, last week we compared how media across the political spectrum cover current news stories. From May 26 to June 1, our community reviewed a wide range of breaking news and opinion, focusing on how different sources reported the day's major events.
Judge Sotomayor
We devoted the first half of the week to stories on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, which President Obama announced early Tuesday. Our top story for this comparison came from Slate's Dahlia Lithwick, who argued that right-wing attacks on Sotomayor are ill-founded and hypocritical. "Instead of wading into a bruising identity politics war they cannot possibly win, conservatives -- even the angriest conservatives -- should wade into Sotomayor's vast legal writings," she wrote. "Let's have this confirmation battle on the merits, rather than the sinkhole of unfounded character attacks." A story from The Root went further, praising Sotomayor's jurisprudence and personal history as essentially impervious to Republican criticism. SCOTUSblog, meanwhile, predicted the four major lines of attack the GOP will take against the nominee, and the Daily Beast argued that the only way Congressional Republicans can stop Sotomayor from being confirmed is to show she is "dangerously unqualified" for the job.
Israeli Settlements
Mid-week we examined the dispute between the Israeli government and the Obama Administration over Obama's calls for a freeze on Israli settlements in the Palestinian territories. In 'Challenge of Israeli Settlements' the BBC captured what several reviewers thought was a level of attention to the Palestinian perspective not regularly seen in the Western press. That story portrayed settlements as a major obstacle to peace in the region; the Jerusalem Post, on the other hand, focused almost exclusively on how Israel will negotiate Obama's position on the settlements, which differ from his predecessor's. And an opinion in Al-Ahram Weekly was optimistic that Obama's plan could help move Palestine toward statehood.
Gay Rights
We ended the week comparing stories on same-sex marriage rights and the legal and social battle over California's Proposition 8. On Tuesday, California's Supreme Court upheld the 2008 ballot measure banning gay marriage in the state. Miller-McCune ran an interview with a law professor that shed light on the legal complexities surrounding Prop 8 and offered some new potential solutions for those pushing for marriage equality. The Washington Post reported on the Mormon church's efforts to oppose same-sex marriage, and Mother Jones profiled Ted Olson, the conservative attorney who plans to challenge Prop 8 in federal court.
This Week: News Comparisons on Foreign Policy
This week we're featuring News Comparisons on Foreign Policy. As President Obama makes his much anticipated trip to the Middle East, we're looking for quality news, analysis and opinion on his relations with the Islamic world. Can you help us find good journalism on this important topic? Please review (or submit) related stories on our Foreign Policy topic page.
Survey Results
Check the results of our recent survey to hear what our community thought of new services we're considering for NewsTrust. The favorite new service by far was News Comparisons, which led us to start experimenting with this service right away, featuring it every day on our home page. What do you think of News Comparisons so far? What do you like most? least? How can we improve on this first prototype. Please share your insights on our Feedback page. Thank you!
-- Derek Hawkins, with Fabrice Florin and Kaizar Campwala
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