BOB GARFIELD: From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I'm Brooke Gladstone.

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MALE CORRESPONDENT: Tonight from the White House a special edition of Primetime.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: We have finally decided to fix -

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BROOKE GLADSTONE: On Wednesday night, ABC featured a town hall-style forum with the President about his health care plan. Before the special even aired, the newly formed Congressional Media Fairness Caucus, 40 House Republicans led by Texas Representative Lamar Smith, declared that there wouldn't be, couldn't be enough challenge to the President and his plan. Smith went on to tell Newsmax.com that media bias was a bigger threat to democracy than terrorism or a depression. ABC’s special was Exhibit A, despite some pretty tough questions for the President.

MALE CORRESPONDENT: Your critics on the Republican side of the Senate Finance Committee wrote you a letter and said at the time... MALE CORRESPONDENT: Would you potentially sacrifice the health of your family for the greater good of insuring millions?

FEMALE CORRESPONDENT: A little skeptical on cost, Mr. President. I don’t even -

MALE CORRESPONDENT: What are you going to do for people like me so that we don't fall through the cracks?

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Congressman Lamar Smith, welcome to the show.

LAMAR SMITH: Happy to be with you, and your listeners, as well.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So, having seen it, were your fears realized?

LAMAR SMITH: Unfortunately, yes. I think all ABC really did all day long from their morning newscast to their evening newscast to the town hall meeting at the White House, I think all that amounted to just showing one side of the health care issue, frankly, as they have since January. ABC has interviewed 55 people in favor of the President’s health care plan. Only 18 were opposed. And they ought to be hearing about what is the Republican plan, tough questions about the President’s plan, how is he going to pay for it, who’s going to pay for it?

BROOKE GLADSTONE: With regard to the special itself, did you feel he wasn't sufficiently challenged?

LAMAR SMITH: A couple of tough questions at the open forum does not equal both sides, particularly when the audience is being handpicked by ABC, and particularly when the President has home court advantage and gets to always have the last answer.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: When you were on with FOX’s Greta Van Susteren, you did compare the ABC special to a rigged football game.

LAMAR SMITH: Right.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: She disagreed.

LAMAR SMITH: Right.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And she’s a lawyer, so she likened it to a legal case.

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GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: And it’s almost like a direct examination was tonight. Tomorrow, everybody can cross-examine it. But for today, we wouldn't have that chance.

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BROOKE GLADSTONE: And the day after the event, Paul Ryan, who is the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, appeared on ABC Good Morning America ¬-

LAMAR SMITH: Right.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: - to offer a response.

LAMAR SMITH: Yeah.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And there have been responses from Republicans all over the media.

LAMAR SMITH: You know, one response by one member of Congress -

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Is that all it’s been?

LAMAR SMITH: - the day, the day after does not equal the all-day coverage by ABC the day before. They ought to give both sides the entire time, not just give one person or a couple of people the next day a few seconds.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Is the formation of your caucus intended to shame the press or, depending where you stand, intimidate it?

LAMAR SMITH: We just want them to adhere to their own journalistic code of ethics, which says they have a duty to provide a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. And, yes, by pointing out examples of media bias, we hope the media will be responsive and do what’s right for the American people.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: I understand that ABC News covered the inaugural event of the Media Fairness Caucus on Wednesday in the House Radio-TV Gallery. Now, events in the gallery, I understand, need a broadcast sponsor, so you asked ABC to do it.

LAMAR SMITH: We did not ask ABC. They volunteered to sponsor us. But it was ironic that even though they agreed to have a camera there, which is all that is meant by sponsorship, ABC did not air one single second.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Congressman, who did cover it?

LAMAR SMITH: CNN was there. NBC was there. ABC was there. Nobody, to my knowledge, gave any coverage to the Media Fairness Caucus news conference.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And FOX News didn't even send a camera. It seems that this bias is very widespread.

LAMAR SMITH: No, the bias is really one-sided. When you look at the Gallup Poll recently, only nine percent of the American people think that the national media reports the news accurately and fairly, nine percent. So the national media have a real serious credibility problem. Those same people, by the way, believe that there are twice as many instances of liberal media bias as conservative, and you see that on the network news.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Thank you very much.

LAMAR SMITH: Okay.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Republican Representative Lamar Smith of Texas is head of the Media Fairness Caucus. David Westin is the president of ABC News. He says there are more than two sides in the debate over health care.

DAVID WESTIN: We had representatives there who were from Democratic persuasion, Republican persuasion, independents, doctors, private individuals who are patients, experts. And we did our best within an hour in prime time and then a half an hour of Nightline to present all sides of the debate. Implicit in some of the criticism is the notion that true journalism consists of having neutered journalists act as a referee between two opposing partisan viewpoints. And, while there’s some role for that in journalism, a lot of the best journalism is done by journalists asking difficult questions, probing questions, and making sure that people are held accountable and answer.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Lamar Smith says it’s the media’s responsibility to give equal time to the Republican alternative, taking it apart and giving people a chance to advocate for it.

DAVID WESTIN: As the Republicans propose a comprehensive alternative, be assured ABC News will cover that in depth and in the similar respectful but probing way that we've done with the President. It may not look just exactly the same.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And you won't have a White House.

DAVID WESTIN: We did, as a nation, elect this man President by a majority of the votes, and as President, he does have a different position than anyone else in the country. And when the President we elected comes forward and says, this is the number one priority for the country, I think we owe it to ourselves to pay attention to it – not necessarily favorable attention, but attention to it.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Do you, in any way, see Congressman Smith’s point about a perceived liberal bias among the American people?

DAVID WESTIN: Well [SIGHS], I certainly have read analyses that suggest that there’s a fair number of Americans who perceive a liberal bias, and that has to give one pause. At the same time, sometimes people who criticize also have their own agenda. The Republican National Committee actually went out with a specific overture to raise funds based on the ABC News not-yet-aired town meeting. I am also mindful that there are going to be a certain gaming of the officials in this matter that the louder people complain, the more they think we may bend over backwards the other way. Our job is to try to keep it right down the middle.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: The Republican Media Fairness Caucus did hold a press conference that ABC News voluntarily sponsored in the TV-Radio Gallery on the Hill, but it didn't actually air any of the coverage, says Smith. Why didn't anybody cover it?

DAVID WESTIN: Well, we covered it. We had a reporter there and we reported it on our website. We have a limited period of time – we're not a cable news channel – and we make a decision, an editorial decision about what merits that much treatment. And as happy as we were to sponsor this event, because we are for more speech, rather than less speech, in the end, it didn't rise to that level.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Thank you very much.

DAVID WESTIN: Thank you, Brooke.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: David Westin is the president of ABC News.