Rochester Media Bias in March for Life

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Rochester Area Right To Life

March for Life 2004
Reporting Shows Media Bias in Rochester, NY

“The Note,” an ABC news bulletin, made the following perceptive comment:

Like every other institution, the Washington and political press corps operate with a good number of biases and predilections.

They include, but are not limited to, a near-universal shared sense that liberal political positions on social issues like gun control, homosexuality, abortion, and religion are the default, while more conservative positions are "conservative positions."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote_Feb1004.html

Indeed, on January 21, 2004, ABC did not mention the March for Life in Washington, DC, attended by over 100,000 people.  Instead, they featured (1) a story alleging that the Bush ban on abortion support in foreign countries is harming women in Africa and Asia and (2) an interview with then-presidential-candidate Wesley Clark in which he explained that he was in favor of allowing abortion “until the moment of birth.”

Pro-lifers have always known that the playing field isn’t level, but readers of the Democrat & Chronicle in the Rochester, NY, area recently got a firsthand look at media bias in action.

An estimated 100,000-plus people participated in the March for Life in Washington, with participation by over a hundred Rochesterians.  The Buffalo newspaper featured a photo of a pro-life group at the March, with a long article about the people who went from Buffalo, why they went, and all sorts of details that a reader might want to know.  It was not a pro-life article, just a news article on a national event.

What were Rochester newspaper readers offered? 

In an inconspicuous location inside the local section, the D&C headlined a local “rally” by 10 abortion-on-demand supporters holding up signs during morning rush hour advocating the right to unrestricted abortion to publicize an upcoming April event.

On the other side, there were 132-plus Rochester people who went on buses, planes, and cars to Washington out of concern for the right of an unborn child to live, plus an undocumented number of pro-life people who did not go to Washington but attended local events.

The D&C chose to do “balanced reporting.”

The abortion-rights point of view got 35 lines in the D&C article.  The one concerned with child-life got 30 lines. 

In the article, the March was portrayed as a confrontation between the two sides.  It is worth noting that local residents who went on the March commented that they did not see the abortion-rights protesters.  Not much of a confrontation.

So when that April event comes up, suppose 10 pro-life volunteers with “Love them both” signs stood on South Clinton Avenur during the morning rush hour.  Does that mean that the pro-life side would get half of the lines in any news story written about abortion that day?  And would the D&C call those 10 people a “rally”?

Or would it turn out that we only see “balanced reporting” when there is a newsworthy pro-life story to report?

If you want to read about the March for Life next year, perhaps you might try a subscription to the Buffalo newspaper.

2/28/2004 RARTL  A. LeBlanc

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News Update 3/8/2004:  The D&C has now assigned a reporter to be the Rochester contact for pro-life news.  Many local pro-life groups will be watching to see if this results in a fairer treatment of pro-life issues.


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