OVERT PRO-ABORTION MEDIA BIAS DEMONSTRATED

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA July 23 (LSN) Leading U.S. media watchdog, the Media Research Center, has recently completed a five-year study examining the American media’s coverage of the abortion issue, and has substantiated claims that the mainstream media is strongly biased on this issue.  The MRC study showed five distinct areas of bias:  1. Pro-lifers are labeled as ideological far more than pro-abortionists. A survey of 1,050 news stories in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today in 1995 and 1996, showed pro-life groups labeled as “conservative” in 47% of the stories, and abortion advocates labeled “liberal” less than 3% of the time.  2. The study also demonstrated bias in coverage of partial-birth abortion. Of 97 network stories run from November 1, 1995 to the end of 1996, “almost one-third of these network stories (28) contained disinformation, including the abortion advocates’ claims that the procedure was ‘rare’ and only done in medical emergencies,” said Tim Graham, MRC’s director of media analysis.  3. The media also plays up the division between pro-life and pro-abortion Republicans (60 TV stories in the three months before their conventions during the period covered by the MRC study), while any division among Democrats is ignored (one TV story during the same period).  4. Pro-abortion events receive far more coverage than do pro-life protests and activities.  5. Pro-abortion media bias is reflected in a feverish interest in publicizing cases of violence against abortionists. “Violence committed against abortionists or clinic personnel inspired more than 500 network television stories from January 1992 to mid-1995,” said Mr. Graham. On the other hand, violence by abortion advocates or abortionists themselves through botched abortions produced only 5 stories.