House Judiciary Chairman Smith: Media needs to report fairly

{mosads}He said a Pew Research Center poll from earlier this year shows that 66 percent of those polled thinks news stories are inaccurate, and 77 percent said news organizations tend to favor one side over the other. According to Pew, 55 percent of those polled said they don’t have very much trust in news organizations, or have none at all.

Smith started the Media Fairness Caucus in 2009, which he said is not meant to censure or condemn but to “urge the media to adhere to the highest standards of their profession.”

Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is co-chairwoman of the caucus.

The caucus says its goal is to point out media bias when it sees it. The group’s most recent newsletter, dated for Wednesday, cites an Investor’s Business Daily editorial that says Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein has become a liberal activist.