Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has dismissed ProPublica’s recent attack on conservative justices as “misleading.” Many observers believe the attacks on “ethics concerns” target the conservative-leaning justices while giving a free pass to the left-leaning judges.
According to AllSides, a media watchdog group that looks for political bias, ProPublica has a left-leaning focus and does not scrutinize Democrat-appointed Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, or Ketanji Brown Jackson as closely. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has passed away, and Stephen Breyer, a retired Justice appointed by the Democratic party, were treated with the most leniency.
An article by James Taranto, a Wall Street Journal editor, criticized ProPublica’s investigative focus on conservatives, saying it isn’t journalism, it’s just propaganda.
Taranto wrote on May 4 that the goal is not to educate the public but rather to provoke hostility towards a political target, using tactics similar to those of leftist activist and author Saul Alinsky, known for his book “Rules for Radicals.”
For example, Justice Sotomayor did not recuse herself from cases involving Penguin Random House, a book publisher that paid her over $3 million since 2010. She received $1.2 million for her memoir titled My Beloved and $1.9 million for multiple children’s books.
It has been reported that Sotomayor did not report reimbursements for lodging related to her University of Rhode Island commencement speech and six visits to public universities in 2016. But, this received no scrutiny.
Breyer had close connections with the affluent Pritzker family based in Chicago, which includes Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, from 1994 to 2022.
Kagan did not recuse herself from Obamacare rulings, despite having previously served as a solicitor general and provided legal advice.
ProPublica says nothing about any of that. ProPublica receives funding from left-leaning donors and is part of a left-wing effort to discredit others.
AllSides states that ProPublica’s primary focus is on topics significant to the political left, such as abortion rights and taxing the wealthy.
