After reading the supplemental FBI background report (of which there is only ONE copy), GOP Senators held a press conference to talk about its findings.

Grassley was asked if the Committee take any type of action against Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s attorneys, or whether they’d refer them to the American Bar Association. After answering that he didn’t know whether there was a reason to take any action, he took the opportunity to give the media a piece of his mind.

“What I’d like to do when we get all done, because this is almost rock bottom. I would like to have the future mending things so we can do things in a collegial way that the US Senate ought to…and you folks can have something to do with this. “Now, I would never use the word ‘Fake News.’ I consider you folks policemen for our democratic system of government but I want to show you where some of you have bias. I’ve had demonstrators in my office for two weeks now, both for Kavanaugh and against Kavanaugh. And one time the people that were for Kavanaugh wanted to be interviewed, and they said we’re only interested in interviewing people against Kavanaugh. Now that’s a bias that none of you should be proud of.”

Watch Bulldog Chuck here:

Sen. Chuck Grassley calls for collegiality, telling the media, "You folks can have something to do with it." "I would never use the word 'fake news.' I consider you folks policemen to our Democratic system of government, but I want to show you where some of you have bias." pic.twitter.com/3RiJUpe9lJ — ABC News (@ABC) October 4, 2018

He was then asked about a letter from Dr. Ford’s attorneys referencing this investigation as a “stain on the FBI.”

I’ll give you – let the FBI do what the FBI is hired to do, and keep political interference out of it. And my making a call to the FBI that you ought to do something is political interference. I made no call to the FBI since this whole process started….

It’s amazing. These “reporters” accuse the GOP of trying to interfere with FBI investigations regarding Donald Trump and Russian collusion, but demand that they tell the FBI what to do when it comes to investigating Dr. Ford’s absolutely unsubstantiated, uncorroborated, 100-percent-political allegations. The only thing that’s consistent about their outrage is its intellectual inconsistency.

Grassley is correct, though. The media have the ability to help change the discourse in this country, and they have a responsibility to do so. I doubt they can see far enough past their partisan hatred to appreciate that responsibility.