Couric did not challenge Romney's claim that "[n]o religious test Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:53:03 -0500

Couric did not challenge Romney's claim that "[n]o religious test should ever be required for qualification for office"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200712120003

On the December 10 broadcast of the CBS Evening News, during an interview with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, anchor Katie Couric asked him "why he didn't spend more time explaining the tenets of his Mormon faith in his speech last week." Romney replied: "I can't imagine doing that in a speech as you're running for president. ... [T]hat would really open the door to the kind of religious test where people would listen and say, 'OK, do I believe that?' " Romney went on to state, "No religious test should ever be required for qualification for office in these United States." However, Couric did not note that Romney himself has repeatedly asserted that Americans "want a person of faith to lead them," as Media Matters for America has documented.

For example:

As Media Matters has noted, several news outlets have uncritically reported Romney's comments on faith in politics. For instance, The Washington Post reported on December 10 that Romney "repeatedly asserts his firm belief in the separation of church and state." In a December 6 article, the Associated Press reported Romney's complaint that a "religious test" to become president was "prohibited in the Constitution." Further, on the December 9 broadcast of the NBC-syndicated The Chris Matthews Show, panelists praised Romney's December 6 speech, with syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker claiming, "New Englanders tend to respond to religion more in terms of liberty and tolerance than in terms of emotional responses."

From the December 10 edition of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric:

COURIC: Mitt Romney will air the first Republican-on-Republican attack ad in Iowa tomorrow, criticizing Mike Huckabee's record on illegal immigration. Today, I talked to Romney about Huckabee and about religion, specifically why he didn't spend more time explaining the tenets of his Mormon faith in his speech last week.

[begin video clip]

ROMNEY: I can't imagine doing that in a speech as you're running for president, because what it would do is, it would say: Look, if you're running for president, you really need to describe your religion in some depth. And that would really open the door to the kind of religious test where people would listen and say, "OK, do I believe that? Do I disagree with it? Does it conform with my own view?"

It would say: We're going to evaluate candidates based upon their explanation of their religion. And that's precisely what the Constitution and the founders said we should not do. No religious test should ever be required for qualification for office in these United States.

COURIC: Having said that, in the absence of a religious test, what's wrong with a little religious clarification?

ROMNEY: Well, and that's, I think, what I did. I pointed out and provided the answers to the questions I think are appropriate: "Will you be there to take direction from the leaders of your church?" And I said no. "Will you be there primarily, or in any way, to represent your church and to try and put its interests ahead of the people's?" The answer is absolutely not.

COURIC: In Iowa, Governor Mike Huckabee has TV ads that describe him, in quite a prominent way, as a Christian leader. Do you think he's trying to draw a distinction between the two of you?

ROMNEY: People run their own campaigns as they want to. I do think it's important that we don't reject someone for political office based on their faith, but also that we don't select someone or elect someone merely because of their faith. And I think it's unusual to advertise your faith in your political campaign.

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Contact:
Katie Couric		 E-mail: evening@cbsnews.com
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