Last month, Republican Representative Lamar Smith of Texas teamed up with fellow Republicans Jack Kingston and Michele Bachmann to introduce the new Media Fairness Caucus of the 111th Congress. The goal of the Media Fairness Caucus, Rep. Smith explained:

“is not to censor or condemn, but to encourage the media to adhere to the highest standards of reporting and to provide the American people with the facts, balanced stories and fair coverage of the news. If the American people don’t get the facts, they can’t make good decisions. And if the American people can’t make good decisions, then our republic is threatened…. members of the MFC will work to highlight media bias at the national level, promote an open dialogue between national media and elected officials, and encourage the American people to become engaged and educated consumers of media.”

Smith continued:

“We will examine the causes of one-sided reporting, develop strategies to combat media bias, promote an open dialogue between members of the media and elected officials, and remind the media of their profound obligation to provide the American people with the facts. We will avoid personal attacks or gratuitous criticism of media representatives.

Goals of the MFC center on stressing the need for objective and fair reporting. We will focus on finding better ways for elected officials and the media to communicate openly in order to encourage fairness and balance in reporting. In addition, we will point out biased coverage in a fair and reasonable way.

How does the Media Fairness Caucus hold up to its own standards? On the home page of the Media Fairness Caucus is an archive of the Media Fairness Caucus Newsletter. There have been four publications of this newsletter to date, each containing two or three one-paragraph commentaries on news coverage of politics.

The following is a tally of the position taken by the Media Fairness Caucus in those commentaries on the media:

# of commentaries concluding that the news media are too harsh on the Obama administration: 0
# of commentaries concluding that the news media are not harsh enough on the Obama administration: 9

# of commentaries concluding that the news media are too harsh on Democratic politicians: 0
# of commentaries concluding that the news media are not harsh enough on Democratic politicians: 3

# of commentaries concluding that the news media are too harsh on Republican politicians: 1
# of commentaries concluding that the news media are not harsh enough on Republican politicians: 0

Is that what the Media Fairness Caucus means by “fair,” “objective,” “balanced,” and “open dialogue”?