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Each week we invite someone from outside PE to weigh in with their thoughts about CBS News and the media at large. This week, we turned to Keith Bybee, a professor of Political Science at Syracuse University, an author and the director of the new Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics and the Media at Syracuse. Below, Bybee wonders if the media play a constructive role in the selection of impartial justices. As always, the opinions expressed and factual assertions made in “Outside Voices” are those of the author, not ours, and we seek a wide variety of voices.

Last year’s long season of Supreme Court nominations and confirmation hearings featured several memorable moments: a serenely composed John Roberts fielding questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee without notes; an embattled Harriet Miers withdrawing as a nominee in order to serve the “best interest of the country;” and a tearful Martha-Ann Alito hastily leaving the confirmation hearings as Sen. Lindsey Graham apologized for the way in which her husband, Samuel Alito, was being questioned.

These moments made for good viewing and good reading. But did they make for good news coverage?

In judging the quality of coverage, I would argue that we should be less concerned with whether the media provide good theater and more concerned with whether media play a constructive role in the judicial selection process.

Generally speaking, the judicial selection process seeks to identify impartial individuals capable of making judgments on the basis of the facts and the law in the case before them. We do not expect judges to come to a controversy without any views on the matter whatsoever. Impartiality is not the same as ignorance; a judge without any pre-existing legal views would be unqualified for office. The key question is whether a judicial nominee’s pre-existing views have petrified into pre-judgments, closing the nominee’s mind against any new arguments and information she may hear on the bench. We want our judges to give litigants a genuine hearing rather than just the pretense of being heard.

Did the media coverage of last year’s Supreme Court selection process assist or impede the search for impartial justices?

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