Mommy Life: Media Bias Alert: partial birth abortion

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April 19, 2007 9:25 AM

Media Bias Alert: partial birth abortion

Someone mentioned in a comment the other day how my alerting readers to media bias had helped her begin to see it. That's how it works. It's not as though you need someone to show you every little thing. Once you pick up on how the media play news to manipulate your reaction, you will see it everywhere.

Take yesterday's news. The Supreme Court of the United States upheld the ban on partial birth abortion. The media played this as a "loss of abortion rights."

I wonder if most people truly understand what partial birth abortion is: the practice in which a baby too old to be aborted through less gruesome methods (up to the day of birth - because before the child is born, it's the mom's to kill), is delivered feet first, leaving only the head inside the mother's womb. Then a pair of surgical scissors is used to stab the baby's skull so it collapses, allowing the "doctor" to deliver the now-dead baby more easily. You can find the diagrams at Partial-Birth Abortion: What's the Big Deal? by Randy Alcorn.

Another way the media might have chosen to play it is "Right to life of viable babies upheld." But that would seriously go against the grain.

Because a baby is a baby only if the mother chooses to see it that way. Otherwise, it is a "fetus" - a mass of tissue awaiting the will of one woman who has the power over life and death for that particular individual.

Fetuses are property like slaves. And someday we will look back on this abortion-happy era as an evil time much like slavery - which the Democratic Party originally favored as well. How have we forgotten that it was Republicans who pushed civil rights, just as most of us now push civil rights for unborn children.

With the mainstream media shamelessly spinning our news by withholding information and harping on their pet agendas, it’s so important to understand how word choice and sentence construction can manipulate readers. Writers are sophisticated in the use of our craft: just like a marksman practices long and hard to hit a target, writers know how to use the language to achieve the results they desire.

I do it myself. But I am a commentator and don’t portray myself as an "objective" news reporter. In today’s media world, though, many still believe erroneously that the news is objective – as it is supposed to be ethically – when actually even the front page stories and lead TV reports are completely agenda-driven. Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that the major media supports abortion and gay marriage, hates Bush, and wants an end to the Iraq War?

Well, there should be a doubt. If the major media were truly neutral, we wouldn’t have a clue how they feel.

I know you’re busy moms. But for anyone who is curious and wants to learn more about media bias, I suggest the Media Research Center. I also subscribe to their Cyber-Alerts, which arrive in my mailbox each day. Though I don't have time to read them in full, I skim the headlines. By now they just confirm what I've already noticed about the pathetic state of journalism in the United States and the shameless manipulation of our citizenry.

Even now we are hearing the rumbles of clamping down on talk radio and blogs. Can you imagine a day when you and I might not be free to state our opinions on our own blogs? Keep informed on legislation that is threatening our freedom of speech. This is serious business.

I remember way back when I was a radical revolutionary and the big slogan was Question Authority. Now people like me are the Authority - only many of them never changed their antiAmerican, anti- tradition, anti-morality posture. Their thinking is now "considered" mainstream. I say "considered" because that's how it's presented in the media, even though the majority of the country is still pretty normal. But we don't count, apparently.

Well, as we used to say in the 60's: Turn on, tune in, drop out.

Turn on to seeking the truth, tune in to alternative media, drop out of following the mainstream media's spin.

Love,

Posted in Media Bias, Pro-Life Issues | Permalink

Comments

I've been seeing ridiculously apparent bias in stories on stem cell research, especially. Infuriating. There's so much misinformation out there, it feels overwhelming to attempt to correct it.

On this story (PBA ban upheld), the Washington Post articles were much more biased than the CNN reports, which weren't stellar models of unbiased journalism themselves.

Posted by: Becky Miller | April 19, 2007 12:26 PM

I remember clearly that day in the early '90's when the media went from referring to the sides of this debate as "pro-life" and "pro-choice" to "anti-abortion" and "pro-choice" almost overnight.

By casting defenders of life as "anti-abortion" the major media sought to show them in a negative light. The manipulation was evident.

I touched on this on my own blog yesterday. Thanks for writing about it as well, Barbara.

Posted by: Dean | April 19, 2007 1:55 PM

Your description of partial birth abortion actually made my stomach churn. So sad that so many have to die because women have "rights". Sigh.

Posted by: Janet | April 19, 2007 3:48 PM

I really had no idea what partial birth abortion was and now I can't stop crying. I don't know why I never looked it up before - I just thought it was some form of abortion and never thought to do so. Thanks for the information.

Posted by: Stevie | April 22, 2007 4:42 PM