Chapter 5 suggests that the justices have been accorded increasing coverage in the news media, particularly in the last quarter century or so. This chapter provides empirical support for that assertion by reviewing the results of a study of news media coverage of Supreme Court justices during a forty-year period.

The unsuccessful confirmation process of Judge Robert Bork in 1987 is widely viewed as a seminal event in the history of the Supreme Court nomination process. The Bork nomination appeared to dramatically extend the time period for the confirmation process and attract expanded news coverage. But did it also raise the public profile of the individual justices? Did the justices, as well as the confirmation process itself, become more newsworthy in the period following the Bork nomination?

A content analysis of news stories about Supreme Court justices was conducted to answer these questions. A more detailed description of the methodology for this study is available in the appendix. Briefly, news stories about Supreme Court justices published in the New York Times and broadcast on NBC Nightly News from 1968 to 2007 were analyzed. The New York Times was chosen because it is considered the most prestigious daily newspaper. NBC Nightly News was selected as a representative of the three major broadcast networks. Moreover, through the Vanderbilt Television News Archives, NBC early-evening news programs are available dating back to 1968.