WASHINGTON, September 1, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An editor at Reuters news responded to a press release sent out by a pro-life group, charging that, by not killing unwanted children, the result would be countless numbers of criminal and uneducated children.
The U.S. National Right to Life Committee solicited hundreds of news services with a press release, responding to Judge Richard Casey’s recent ruling opposing the Partial Birth Abortion Ban. A Reuters news service editor, Todd Eastham, responded to the press release with a scathing rebuke of the group. “What’s your plan for parenting & educating all the unwanted children you people want to bring into the world?” he writes. “Who will pay for policing our streets & maintaining the prisons needed to contain them when you, their parents & the system fail them? Oh, sorry. All that money has been earmarked to pay off the Bush deficit. Give me a frigging break, will you?”“It is sad, but revealing, to see an editor for a major news service so casually and gratuitously express such blatant hostility to both the Bush Administration and to the right to life of unborn children,” Douglas Johnson, NRLC legislative director, said. “Apparently, Mr. Eastham feels strongly that abortion is necessary to prevent the birth of children who will otherwise snatch some bread from his mouth.” Eastham is identified as Reuters North American news editor; he has also authored Reuters dispatches on many different subjects, including political stories and stories about the Catholic Church.
“We can only wonder at how such vehement opinions may colour Mr. Eastham’s reporting or editing on subjects such as abortion and the Bush Administration.”“The boilerplate material on the bottom of Mr. Eastham’s e-mail invites readers to visit the Reuters website,” Johnson continues. “I did so, and found there Reuters ‘editorial policy,’ which includes such admonitions as, ‘Reuters journalists do not offer their own opinions or views.’” To contact Reuters news to offer feedback: https://www.reuters.com/-helpSection.jhtml?p=contactUs tv