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Thank you. service by becoming a member at WNYC.org. From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's on the media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

This week brought wall-to-wall media coverage

devoted to the Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Samuel J. Alito. This is, of course,

a momentous event. Justices do serve for life, after all, and shape the legal underpinnings

of the Republic. This is reason enough to cover the hearings, but perhaps there is another as well.

As the week went on, some of the coverage took on another aspect, that of a civics lesson.

The mass media were actually informing us about the issues at stake.

Legal analysts discussed precedent, senators bickered about procedure,

and Judge Alito staked out clear positions on a variety of key issues. Well, two out of three

isn't bad. Here to talk with us about these illuminating moments and some of the less

illuminating ones as well is Tony Morrow, Supreme Court correspondent for

Legal Times and American Lawyer Media. He's been closely watching the hearings, and he joins

us now. Tony, welcome to O2M. Thanks for having me. Well, first of all, we certainly did not

see from Judge Alito a whole lot of detail about his positions on some very central issues.

Here is what at least one of his answers sounded like.

...