Category: Media Bias

A study by the Pew Research Center reveals media bias in the 2012 election.

This doesn’t relate to abortion directly but does relate to it indirectly. Pro-lifers have been saying for a long time that the mainstream media (CNN, MSNBC, etc.) are biased against the pro-life cause.

It backs up the claim that the information one gets on issues, presumably including abortion, varies based on what news one watches.

Here are the results:

Coverage for Obama was:

On CNN: 21% negative, 18% positive

On FOX News: 46% negative, 6% positive

On MSNBC: 15% negative, 39% positive

Coverage for Mitt Romney was:

On CNN: 36% negative, 11% positive

On FOX News: 12% negative, 28% positive

On MSNBC: 71% negative, 3% positive

So we see there was considerable media bias in the 2012 election.

Dutchess Harris Uncovering Bias in the News (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Abdo Publishing, 2018) 9

Information on media bias directly concerning abortion.

 

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A journalist writes about possible reasons other journalists didn’t cover the Kermit Gosnell trial:

“Writing about abortion, like writing about the Israel-Palestine conflict, guarantees (a) extreme abuse from readers no matter where you come down; (b) extreme, tedious scrutiny of every word you write; (c) certain knowledge that personal friends and family members will find themselves in strong, emotional disagreement with you; (d) the discouraging impression that no fact or argument presented will change anyone’s mind; (e) the accusation that you are complicit in something even worse than what Hitler did, or else that you hate women and want to control their bodies, or both.

There’s also the feeling that, by raising the subject, you’re bringing out the very worst in some people. The way they behave to one another in comments and characterize people on the other side of the debate over email is unsettling. Perhaps there’s a journalistic analogue of deliberately avoiding abortion at dinner parties, even ones where political debate is valued and encouraged.”

CONOR FRIEDERSDORF “14 Theories for Why Kermit Gosnell’s Case Didn’t Get More Media Attention” The Atlantic APRIL 15, 2013

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An article in the Los Angeles Times  says:

“Ethan Bronner says that when he wrote a story for the Boston Globe last year on late-term abortions, a copy editor questioned his description of a surgical procedure “destroying” the fetus by “crushing forming skulls and bones.” Bronner says the editor told him, “As far as I’m concerned, until that thing is born, it is really no different from a kidney; it is part of the woman’s body.” To talk about “destroying” it or about “forming bones,” the editor said, “is really to distort the issue.”

DAVID SHAW “Abortion Bias Seeps Into News” Los Angeles Times JUL 01, 1990

Above: 24 week old preborn baby. yes, her bones are crushed in a late term abortion.

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Jason Walsh, Irish reporter, says:

“Mocking antiabortion campaigners is a bloodsport among journalists…”

James Walsh Ireland’s Modern Proposal (Not Safe for Work Corporation, 2013) Kindle edition

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From an article on media bias in the abortion debate. Lisa Myers, who covers abortion for NBC:

“I do believe that some of the stories I have read or seen have almost seemed like cheerleading for the pro-choice side.”

DAVID SHAW “Abortion Bias Seeps Into News” Los Angeles Times JUL 01, 1990

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Randy Alcorn, who participated in pro-life rescues, told the following story:

“A Minneapolis pastor told me of an incident at a rescue he observed firsthand. While rescuers were blocking access to an abortion clinic, news cameras arrived. A young woman then tried to make her way into the clinic and was peacefully prevented by the locked arms of the rescuers. She sobbed, right in front of the television cameras, “I’m just here for a Pap smear – why won’t you let me in?” obviously, this made ideal footage to discredit rescuing.

A little while later, the pastor saw the same woman wearing one of the clinic’s “escort” vests. She had been working for the abortion clinic all along! The entire drama had been staged and the woman was an actress, a phony. When the pastor pointed this out to the news crew, its members didn’t care. They said, “We have our story.” And they put it on the news that evening. Though they knew it was absolutely false, it served their purposes.”

Randy C. Alcorn Is Rescuing Right? (Downers Grove, Illinois, Inter-Varsity Press, 1990) 135

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An article in the LA Times on media bias in the abortion issue said:

“When reporter Susan Okie wrote on Page 1 of the Washington Post last year that advances in the treatment of premature babies could undermine support for the abortion-rights movement, she quickly heard from someone in the movement.

“Her message was clear,” Okie recalled recently. “I felt that they were . . . (saying) ‘You’re hurting the cause’ . . . that I was . . . being herded back into line.”

Okie says she was “shocked” by the “disquieting” assumption implicit in the complaint–that reporters, especially women reporters, are expected to write only stories that support abortion rights.”

DAVID SHAW “Abortion Bias Seeps Into News” Los Angeles Times JUL 01, 1990

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Randy C. Alcorn, who attended a pro-life rescue (a sit in at an abortion clinic) told the following story about the reporter who interviewed him.

“I was interviewed at one rescue by a newspaper reporter. We had talked at length, and I was pleased that all the rescuers were very calm and controlled, so he wouldn’t have any grounds for a sensational story and hopefully stick to the facts.

Later, however, one woman who was not with our group and did not come to rescue arrived on the scene and began shouting at the clinic personnel and one policeman. One of our leaders took her aside and begged her to stop. I immediately went to the same reporter and pointed out that the woman shouting was not with the group doing the rescue, and in fact we were actively trying to calm her down and get her off the premises. I specifically said, “Please don’t give the impression that she’s with us, because she isn’t.”

The article in the next morning’s paper focused on this woman and her shouting and name-calling. It left the definite impression that she was not only with our group, but representative of our behavior. This isolated 10 minute incident, totally uncharacteristic of the rest of the five hours we were there, became the major focus of the story. 500,000 readers would come away with a completely inaccurate impression of both the rescue and the rescuers.”

Randy C. Alcorn Is Rescuing Right? (Downers Grove, Illinois, Inter-Varsity Press, 1990) 134 – 135

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