Surprise: Mainstream Media Covered Women's March 3x More Than March for Life

Leah Barkoukis | January 23, 2018 8:05 AM

More than a hundred thousand pro-lifers showed up in Washington, D.C. last week for the annual March for Life, but if you were counting on ABC, CBS, or NBC news to fill you in, you probably missed it.

That’s because the evening newscasts on “The Big Three” networks largely ignored the story, spending only two minutes and six seconds on the event, which marked the 45^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. This is especially surprising considering President Trump directly addressed the marchers—and was the first president to do so.

What ABC, CBS, and NBC found much more important, however, was the pro-abortion Women’s March that took place on Saturday, when demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the U.S., “galvanized by their disdain for Mr. Trump and his administration’s policies,” the New York Times described. The networks devoted three times more coverage to the event, spending a total of six minutes and 43 seconds on it.

This, MRC's Katie Yoder notes, is nothing new.

During their morning and evening news shows for the past five years (2013 – 2017, the broadcast networks have offered fewer than 24 minutes to the March for Life. To put that in perspective, ABC, CBS and NBC spent more than three times that on the Women’s March in 2017 alone, with 1 hour, 15 minutes, 18 seconds. (Newsbusters)

Update: Nets Cover @womensmarch Nearly 7X More Than @March_for_Life via @k_yoder - Time is everything, especially when it comes to understanding the media’s priorities. At the end of January, there were two marches the same weekend both claiming to st... https://t.co/sD9kOxPPu7
— MediaResearchCenter (@theMRC) January 22, 2018

No bias?

Think again. #WomensMarch2018 #MarchForLife2018 https://t.co/jmOEZD4APm pic.twitter.com/Kyeop5vfzu
— Katie Yoder (@k_yoder) January 22, 2018

As Ryan Bomberger, Townhall columnist and Radiance Foundation chief creative officer, wrote of the lack of the March for Life’s coverage by the mainstream media, “truth, in visual form, is always a threat to liberalism.”