Wednesday January 20, 1999
CBC AIRS “DOCUMENTARY” REPLETE WITH BIAS
TORONTO, Jan 20 (LSN) Last night’s CBC National Magazine “Thou Shalt Not Kill” was a deliberate but unsuccessful attempt to establish solid links between the always peaceful Canadian pro-life movement and a tiny fringe of U.S anti-abortionists who do not condemn violence.
As a taxpayer funded organization, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) is obliged to represent the views of all mainstream Canadians. In this case, it gave excessive coverage to the American radicals and to Canadian abortion providers who hold that the Canadian pro-life movement is responsible for any violence against them. Pro-lifers are responding that the abuse of standards of fairness and honesty in the CBC report is inexcusable and are demanding an apology and opportunity for equal response.
The following observations made by pro-life leaders across the country demonstrate the bias of the “documentary” and its misleading tactics such as the attempted use of guilt by association to vilify Canadian pro-lifers.
– CBC was unable to find a single example of proven violence or support for violence by the Canadian Pro-Life Movement to air on its program. It therefore resorted to showing clips of U.S anti-abortion groups who refuse to condemn the killing of abortionists. The CBC then attempted, through carefully crafted and selected clips, to create apparent links between the mainstream movement and the few fringe U.S. anti-abortionists.
– The CBC allowed only 2 minutes of commentary from Canadian pro-lifers on their entire 24 minute program. Campaign Life Coalition leader Jim Hughes was the only Canadian pro-life activist interviewed. Only 2 minutes of a 2 hour interview, by a somewhat hostile reporter, was used for the program.
– Further, Mr. Hughes was the only mainstream pro-lifer interviewed for the entire program and mainstream (ie.non-violent) U.S pro-lifers were completely left out or not mentioned
– The CBC chose not to air Hughes’ outright condemnations of all abortion violence, including his strong condemnation of the violence directed toward abortionists or others in the abortion industry. The rest of the mainstream pro-life movement also condemns abortion violence against preborn children, the violence against the children’s mothers and the violence directed against pro-lifers by abortion advocates.
See this October 24, 1998 press release by CLC for proof:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/clc/press/slepianshooting.pdf
– If the CBC were really concerned about stopping so-called pro-life violence in Canada then they would have aired Jim Hughes’ and others’ compelling arguments about the necessity for non-violent pro-life activism saying that those who advocate violence, including the killing of abortionists, are not pro-life.
– One clip on the program saw angry pro-abortion advocates yelling and screaming at pro-lifers. However this clip followed the standard formula of making it seem that it was the pro-lifers exhibiting the obnoxious behaviour.
– Finally, if CBC wanted to do a story on the pro-life ‘radicals’ in Canada why didn’t they interview the Canadian pro-lifer who has served the most time in jail? The obvious reason why CBC did not feature Linda Gibbons is because hers is a story of faith, peace, and non-violence.
SHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook