Media Largely Ignored March for Life, Provided Biased Abortion Coverage

LifeNews.com ^ | January 27, 2004 | Steven Ertelt

[Got a right to Life? . . Huh?]

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- While one media outlet, ABC News, has already been criticized for its biased coverage of the 2004 March for Life, a comprehensive analysis by a media watchdog group shows that the national media largely ignored the 2003 pro-life march as well.

The Media Research Center conducted an analysis of the 2003 March for Life coverage and found that national outlets spent more time covering a much smaller anti-Bush, anti-war protest that occurred just four days earlier.

ABC, CBS, and NBC aired 26 segments on the anti-war march, 14 of them before the rally began. The coverage included stories which emphasized the protesters’ diversity, including political diversity.

"Braving frigid temperatures," ABC's Lisa Sylvester proclaimed on the January 19 World News Tonight, "they traveled across the country -- black and white, Democrat and Republican, young and old."

The coverage, print and broadcast, excised speeches from the podium, from rally organizer Ramsey Clark's call for President Bush's impeachment to a man decrying the Bush administration as "greedy imperialist murderers."

On the other hand, the networks focused much less attention on the large March for Life. They offered only nine stories (four of them beforehand) and most of the stories covered the abortion debate in general and "made only oblique references" to the March for Life, MRC notes.

"Not one network news story had the pro-life demonstrations as its central topic, in contrast to 26 that featured anti-war protesters," the MRC analysis indicated.

The news coverage also blurred the difference between the more than 100,000 people that attended the March for Life and several dozen that attended pro-abortion rallies or counterprotests.

That evening, CBS's Dan Rather obscured the counts this way: "Tens of thousands of demonstrators on both sides of the issue filled the streets of Washington today."

Reporters also failed to describe the diversity of the pro-life march participants, the Media Research Center notes. Instead, they highlighted the fringe and a few extreme elements.

NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reported on a "crowd" that was later described as "a dozen or so" by the Buffalo News: "Today, supporters of James Kopp the man who confessed to the killing [of abortion practitioner Barnett Slepian in 1998], have come to Buffalo to claim the shooting was justified."

On CBS, reporter Jim Axelrod held up the "small number of demonstrators" as "telling," since the Slepian shooting was "an example of how abortion is redder than any other red meat social issue in America. It's the one producing the most violence." Axelrod spoke over video of a bomb going off.

ABC News was recently criticized for completely ignoring the 2004 March for Life. Instead, the network news channel covered Wesley Clark expanding on his pro-abortion position.

The only other abortion coverage from ABC News was on their web site, where the news outfit feature two pro-abortion articles. One lumped the pro-life movement in with violence extremists and the other accused the Bush administration of sacrificing women's lives because of a pro-life foreign policy prohibiting taxpayer funding of groups that promote or perform abortions in other countries.

"If it were up to the networks alone, only the pro-life movement would need to struggle to be heard," MRC concluded.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Doctor Raoul]

ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN are like the leisure suit.
Nobody buys it anymore.

[Henchman]

Next time you appear on public property, drop a 10 ton stone with the ten Commandments chisled on it. Highlight Thou shalt not kill. Refuse to move etc. That might get some publicity.

[Saundra Duffy]

Sad but true. Nothing new. Same old crap.

[The_Eaglet]

I wonder if it would be best to block the entrances to liberal news media outlets with the protests. Maybe that way the protest would get reported. Of course in a bad, biased, way, but still reported.

Perhaps a demonstration that does not involve blocking would work, such as life chain that goes down the street by a media's facilities.

A Today Show FReep would be a great idea. Local and national media need to see visible support for the right to life in respectable and story-making messages.

[The_Eaglet]

Presidential Candidate Michael Peroutka was in the March for Life and made a campaign video of it for his web page. He has some good statements on the right to life.

I like his point about not wanting to be back because if protection for the unborn were restored we wouldn't need to do events like the March for Life or Life Chain every year.

[The_Eaglet]

Ignoring the threat to free speech-Campaign Finance Reform thread-day 48

[Aquinasfan]

That evening, CBS's Dan Rather obscured the counts this way: "Tens of thousands of demonstrators on both sides of the issue filled the streets of Washington today."

There's a word for this. It's called: lying.

[Aquinasfan]

You mean likew organizing a march that would pack pack Times Square udring the Broadcast of Good Morning America or Rockefeller Center during the broadcast of the Today Show?

Excellent idea. I'm in!

[RobbyS]

Maybe next January 22. If Bush is reelected I will come up to Washington and visit my daughter for the Inauguration. She lives just eight blocks from the capitol. Just a short trip from NYC.

[firebrand]

There's a great coffe and pastry shop right there.

Be sure to take out a short-term loan first.

[T Lady]

So what else is new? As William McGowan's 'Coloring The News: How Political Correctness Has Corrupted American Journalism' proves extensively, the Media doesn't report news as much as it crusades for an angenda.

-Regards, T.

[Valin]

Hope you're not suprised.

[alrea]

they don't agree with it and thus no coverage.

bill clinton's "u-mer-cun people" are those that voted for him. the press and the government ignore those that are not in agreement with them.

it's like the NAALCP.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

Sorry to hear about this. Please don't let your disappointment affect the important work you are doing.

[uncbuck]

Or how about Times Square during TRL on MTV.

[Ethan_Allen]

To all the evildoers, (by commission or omission. Those who are repentent are excluded):

Num 8:17 For all the firstborn of the children of Israel [are] mine, [both] man and beast: on the day that I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for myself. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Num/8/17.html

Jer 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal, which [are] in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through [the fire] unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Jer/32/35.html

Psa 106:37 Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Psa/106/37.html

God creates life; only God has the right to take it:

Psa 139:13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

Psa 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully [and] wonderfully made: marvellous [are] thy works; and [that] my soul knoweth right well.

Psa 139:15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, [and] curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all [my members] were written, [which] in continuance were fashioned, when [as yet there was] none of them.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Psa/Psa139.html#13

Luk 12:7 But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered...... http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Luk/12/7.html

As long as there are people in this country who fight for the lives of the innocent, I have hope that God will preserve us at least a while longer:

Pro 24:11 If thou forbear to deliver [them that are] drawn unto death, and [those that are] ready to be slain;

Pro 24:12 If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider [it]? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth [not] he know [it]? and shall [not] he render to [every] man according to his works?
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Pro/Pro024.html#top

Just so no one complains he didn't understand; here's another version linked from the page above. We will ALL be called to account:

Pro 24:11 Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don't stand back and let them die.
NLT Copyright 1996 Tyndale Charitable Trust .......

Pro 24:12 Don't try to avoid responsibility by saying you didn't know about it. For God knows all hearts, and he sees you. He keeps watch over your soul, and he knows you knew! And he will judge all people according to what they have done.....
NLT Copyright 1996 Tyndale Charitable Trust


Psa 94:1 O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself...... http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Psa/Psa094.html

Psa 94:5 They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.

Psa 94:6 They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.

Psa 94:7 Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard [it].

Psa 94:8 Understand, ye brutish among the people: and [ye] fools, when will ye be wise?

*** Psa 94:9 HE THAT PLANTED THE EAR, SHALL HE NOT HEAR? HE THAT FORMED THE EYE, SHALL HE NOT SEE?

Psa 94:10 He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, [shall not he know]? ......

*** Psa 94:16 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? [or] who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? [300,000 IN DC and around the country, and all those who stand by on the Terri threads, and are in prayer and working behind the scenes on her behalf across this country and even around the world! Bless them all, Lord.) .........

*** Psa 94:20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?

*** Psa 94:21 They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and CONDEMN THE INNOCENT BLOOD. *** http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Psa/94/21.html ....

*** Psa 94:23 And He shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; [yea], the LORD our God shall cut them off. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Psa/94/23.html

nick, all you people on the Terri threads who stand by Terri day in and day out, are my heroes. Just wanted you to know that.
Got a right....same goes for you.

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

"If it were up to the networks alone, only the pro-life movement would need to struggle to be heard," MRC concluded.


If it were up to the networks alone, prolifers would have their brains sucked out by a vacuum cleaner.

[34512a]

I understand the lack of media coverage. Nothing much happened. Why cover it? At anti-war protests they are decidedly not peaceful, and that gets noticed. They also have a string of celebrities that mouth off. I'm sure the pro-life march had celebrities too, but not the same caliber at all. And all George Bush did was phone-in. Like I said in another thread, he isn't showing the best leadership on this issue.