While the nation's major news media outlets virtually ignored the Kermit Gosnell murder trial, they media fell over themselves to outdo each other in lavishing praise on Texas State Senator Wendy Davis. You will recall that the pro-choice Democrat was hailed for her filibuster of SB 5, an abortion regulation law that bans surgical abortions after 20-weeks into a pregnancy and sets in place strict surgical center-style guidelines for the Lone Star State's abortion mills. Davis's unholy crusade for the unrestricted right to kill unborn children received three times more coverage by CBS, NBC, and CBS than the entire Gosnell case – or at least at the point when the big three decided to report on the story.
Well now, inspired by the Media Research Center, the pro-life group Live Action has announced their intention to March on the Media in protest of their continually-slanted coverage on life issues. Here's the July 24 press release in full:
Citing a dire need for honest reporting, Live Action has organized a "March on the Media" campaign to call out the "big three" American news networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC. The pro-life advocacy group is launching a multifaceted initiative to call attention to how the media reports on the abortion issue, including a petition drive, a website (lifemarchonmedia.com), and open letters to the networks.
"ABC consistently flinches in the face of the ultimate human rights abuse – abortion," one letter reads in part. "The public expects you to impart knowledge, to tackle hard truths, and to bring us to terms with our own biases. Yet your network and others sedulously censor and suppress the news on this vital issue, to the detriment of the public and to your own discredit." Live Action reports that all of these steps will culminate in rallies outside major media outlet headquarters – a March on the Media – scheduled for the near future.
"Like it or not, the major news networks have huge influence in our get a sense of the world through national filters like ABC, CBS, and NBC. So it's inexcusable when these networks, in whom so much public trust is invested, refuse to report the facts on one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time." Rose's organization is showcasing a slew of reports by the Media Research Center on selective and biased reporting of the abortion issue, from the Kermit Gosnell trial to Wendy Davis's filibuster against the recently passed House Bill 2, which regulates abortion in Texas.
State Senator Davis – to whom, the MRC reports, the major networks devoted three times more coverage over 19 days than they did to the 58-day Gosnell trial – will visit Washington, D.C. tomorrow to raise funds. "The media has flinched from the reality of abortion for decades," Rose said, "but the degree to which they mischaracterize and whitewash this issue has become egregious lately. How can you go on about a senator's sneakers and completely ignore the reason you're talking about those shoes in the first place: because she's championing a procedure that literally tears helpless children to pieces and puts women's lives and health in extreme danger?"
Rose says she wants to point the media in a new direction. "A change is long overdue for our big news distributors," she said. "It's time for these networks to end their blackout of the truth on abortion – how it irreparably harms women, babies, and society. "The abortion-friendly reporters and executives in New York and Washington will not come to terms with this fact unless we bring it to their door," Rose said. "So that's what we're doing."
