NewsBusters has this:
But, as NPR’s Tamara Keith reports, this is an election year when many votes are as much about getting the opposition on the record as passing legislation.”
Keith led her report with the anti-GOP smear: “By now, you’ve heard about the Republican war on women. Democrats don’t want voters, particularly coveted female voters, to forget about it. First, there was the issue of contraception; then, came the Violence Against Women Act. You might say the Paycheck Fairness Act is a sequel.” She continued with two clips from Senator Harry Reid attacking Republicans, and specifically singling out presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Later in the segment, the NPR journalist acknowledged that “the fact that he [Romney] and his fellow Republicans had to, once again, explain their position on women’s issues appears to be exactly what Democrats want. In the Senate, they keep bringing up bills related to women – bills they know Republicans don’t support….With the war on women narrative apparently likely to continue, House Republicans are trying to get off of defense. They recently launched the women’s policy committee.”
What Keith failed to mention that is that a May 24, 2012 article by Andrew Stiles of the Washington Free Beacon documented that “a substantial gender pay gap exists” in the offices of three female senators who support the Paycheck Fairness Act. Senator Patty Murray of Washington is “one of the worst offenders,” according to Stiles: “Female members of Murray’s staff made about $21,000 less per year than male staffers in 2011, a difference of 33.8 percent. That is well above the 23 percent gap that Democrats claim exists between male and female workers nationwide.” Overall, according to the writer, “women working for Senate Democrats in 2011 pulled in an average salary of $60,877. Men made about $6,500 more.”
Back in April 2012, the correspondent filed a one-sided report on Mitt Romney and cited the “liberal news site Think Progress” as one of her main sources. Keith turned to a former aide to Democrats John Kerry and Deval Patrick without giving his political or ideological affiliation.