With "hot political potato" stories like President Obama's inauguration speech and Hillary Clinton’s testimony at the Benghazi hearings, the contrast in coverage was even more pronounced than usual this week.

Here are our top contrast picks for these two big stories:

Benghazi stories

From the Right (Fox News): 

Republicans challenge Clinton claims on budget cuts, Benghazi cable

“Republicans are challenging a host of statements made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton … claiming that complaints about a lack of funding are bogus and questioning the secretary's insistence she never saw urgent cables warning about the danger of an attack.”

From the Left leaning (Washington Post):

In her Capitol Hill swan song, Hillary Clinton shines

 “…she came blazing onto Capitol Hill in true Hillary style, concluding the Libya drama on her terms and exiting the Washington stage to regroup for her next adventure…”

From the Center (CNN):

Five things we learned from the Benghazi hearings

“Clinton acknowledged a "systemic breakdown" cited by an independent review of issues leading up to the armed assault and said her department was taking additional steps to increase security at U.S. diplomatic facilities.”

Inauguration speech stories

From the Right (Rich Lowry, editor of National Review):

Rush was right

"Obama settled once and for all the debate over his place on the political spectrum and his political designs. He’s an unabashed liberal determined to shift our politics and our country irrevocably to the left."

From the Left (Hari Sevugan, former spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee and 2008 Obama campaign):

Obama’s speech was mainstream - not liberal

“…poll after poll shows that what Republicans viscerally react to as “liberal” is, in fact, where a majority of Americans are on key social issues.”

From the Center (NPR):

Resolute Rhetoric: Obama's Confident Case For Government 

“What was most striking, however, to historians and former presidential speechwriters was Obama's defense of government programs that build bridges and railroads, that ensure, he said, competitive and fair free markets, and that provide a "measure of security and dignity" to the nation's old, its needy, and those rocked by misfortune.”

Interestingly, both Sevugan (Obama’s speech was mainstream - not liberal) and Lowry (Rush was right) claim that the other side agrees with their view of Obama's speech. The former Obama spokesman wrote, "Republicans – the ones interested in winning again anyhow – admitted it," and the National Review editor stated, "Obama’s allies exulted in his open embrace of liberal ideology." 

 

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