If ever we needed a reminder of the media’s extreme pro-abortion bias, we received it with their coverage of last week’s two marches, the March for Life on Friday and the Women’s March on Saturday. The first event was all but ignored, aside from President Trump’s historic address to the march; the second event was celebrated and glorified and magnified.
The differences in coverage were so glaring as to be embarrassing. But within the echo chamber of leftist media, the bias is so ingrained that it is not even noticed. And it is hardly anything new.
In fact, in 1981, professors S. Robert Lichter and Stanley Rothman “released a groundbreaking survey of 240 journalists at the most influential national media outlets — including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS — on their political attitudes and voting patterns.” The survey found these “media elites” to be shockingly liberal, to the point that “54 percent did not regard adultery as wrong, compared to only 15 percent [of the general public] who regarded it as wrong.”
Not only so, but “Ninety percent agree that a woman has the right to decide for herself whether to have an abortion; 79 percent agree strongly with this pro-choice position.” This was in 1981. Little has changed to this day, aside from alternative voices being raised up to combat this one-sided narrative.
From 1987-1996, my family lived in Maryland, immediately outside of Washington, DC, and many of our friends were on the front lines of the pro-life movement. One year, a number of us participated in an Operation Rescue event and were arrested at a local abortion clinic. This barely made the news, despite a fairly substantial turnout.
The next day was the massive March for Life, attended by multiplied tens of thousands of peaceful protestors. And it took place right in our back yard, certainly worthy of local news, not to mention national news. There were also a handful of pro-abortion protestors at the event, but they were outnumbered by 500 or even 1000 to 1.
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That night we gathered around our TVs to watch the 11:00 PM local news, and there was not a mention of the march until the closing minutes of the broadcast. And this despite the fact that the march was far and away the most momentous local event of the week (or month?), let alone of the day.
And how did the stations cover the event? They did not show the massive crowds. Instead, they interviewed a couple of pro-life marchers and a couple of pro-abortion protestors, giving the idea that they were equal in number. We were grieved but not surprised.
Not much has changed today, and if not for President Trump addressing the March for Life, which was participating in the longest-lasting protest march in our nation’s history (tragically), it appears there would have been a virtual media blackout of the event.
But this year, the media were able to display their bias even more dramatically, not just covering the women’s march (which included many a staunch pro-abortion feminist) but actually celebrating it.
The Right Scoop website counted tweets from CNN and CNN Breaking News on both events. The totals?
For the March for Life, there were zero tweets from CNN’s Breaking News and two from CNN’s main account, both focusing on the president’s address, where, we were told, he touted his “anti-abortion” record. In contrast, CNN’s Breaking News tweeted 10 times about the women’s march while CNN’s main account tweeted 18 times.
It’s worth looking at the page to see the tweets and pictures for yourself. Talk about shouting out your bias.
But once again, this is nothing new. One year ago, Newsbusters carried this shocking headline: “Networks Cover Women’s March 129x More Than March for Life.” Yes, 129 times.
What is really tragic is that many people get their news from the liberal media, because of which they have a skewed sense of reality, not even knowing what is taking place in their own nation.
All the more, then, do we have the responsibility to challenge the integrity of the leftist media, to expose its biases loudly and clearly, and to determine to get the truth out – sans our own biases – for the world to hear.
And we do this with confidence, not despair, knowing that in the end, truth will always triumph. As the apostle Paul wrote, “For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth” (2 Corinthians 13:8).
Who knows? We might even see a shift in media perspectives in our lifetimes.
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