"Senate Panel Strongly Backs Roberts"
The New York Times
By David Stout
This article comes off as unbiased. The language seems to focus strictly on the information and not on perpetuating a specific idea. Stout only writes from a perspective when he quotes or summarizes the Senators statements. For example, when discussing Arlen Specter's comments about John Roberts' ability to build a consensus, Stout summarizes the Senator by writing: "a gift that will serve him well as he takes his place on a court that has often been sharply split." This is a compliment to Roberts that he would only hear from supporters.
David Stout uses the word "heap" to describe how Republican Senators praised Judge Roberts. In this context, the word appears to show a lack of care shown by the Republican Senators on the committee for just blindly complimenting and praising Judge Roberts.
To describe the reaction of Democratic Senators to Judge Roberts Stout uses the word "restrained." This word seems to accurately describe their reaction as he uses many examples of their questioning support.
The most important way the author ensures that this article is unbiased is by getting comments from both sides of the issue. He directly quotes and paraphrases both the Democrats and the Republicans about the same. A great majority of the words he chooses are informative in nature and have weak if any connotations. It is hard to read into this article too deep, as David Stout seems determined to stay in the middle of the issue and cover it from an objective point of view.
