Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Big surprise. The mainstream media’s annual snubbing of the March for Life was in full swing again this year, only this time they had an excuse (hint: it wasn’t the Blizzard of 2016) – it was the debut of the Smithsonian Zoo’s latest giant panda cub, Bei Bei.
According to Katie Yoder at the Media Research Center (MRC), a media watchdog group, ABC, CBS and NBC lived up to their reputation of only reporting what they want Americans to know about and devoted not a single word to an event that drew thousands into Washington DC in spite of an impending storm that turned out to be the blizzard of the century. Rather than allow Americans to see the enormous support – and commitment – of those who oppose abortion, they thought learning about Bei Bei was more in the public interest.
Seriously?
“Journalists don’t care about the unborn, but they care about the newly born if they happen to be adorable animals,” Yoder writes. “How dare they. There’s no denying that panda cubs are cute and attention-worthy. But there’s something terribly wrong when the three networks devote minutes to animals, while only sparing seconds to human beings.”
If that.
To be fair, ABC did give the March a “peep” of coverage when it reported on a “group of high schoolers trying to get back to Kentucky after visiting D.C. for the March for Life” who got stuck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
NBC also mentioned the stranded groups and reported that a priest said Mass for them while they were stuck in the blizzard but couldn’t bring themselves to report why they were stuck – because these busloads of young people had attended the March for Life.
That one mention by NBC amounted to 22 seconds, Yoder reports. But during the same time period a week earlier, the three networks spent nine minutes and 36 seconds on Bei Bei’s debut!
ABC World News Sunday ran with the headline “panda-monium” while CBS Sunday Morning on January 17 made a big deal out of the “dozens” who came to see the panda cub.
But they couldn’t report on the thousands who marched against the slaughter of the innocent unborn a week later?
Yoder states the obvious. “Journalists don’t care about the unborn, but they care about the newly born if they happen to be adorable animals.”
No wonder the mainstream media devoted a grand total of just 78 seconds to the March for Life since 2013.
Print media was no better. Even though thousands came to Washington and marched in spite of the impending storm, The New York Times lived up to its reputation as being one of the most biased newspapers on the planet by grossly underestimating the crowd to have been in the “hundreds.” At least the Washington Post, another bulwark of propaganda-disguised-as-news, called the march “small”.
And it was, in comparison to the 200,000 who showed up last year and braved an exceptionally cold day to show their support for human life.
But march organizers were not at all disappointed in this year’s turnout, considering the circumstances.
“We were extremely pleased with what appeared to be tens of thousands of Americans who came together to celebrate life today despite the weather conditions,” said Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, in a statement to MRC Culture. “Today we proved our commitment to this cause, and protecting all life, especially for the unborn.”
And this story wasn’t in the public interest as much as Bei Bei?
This isn’t journalism, folks. It’s the deliberate manipulation of public opinion by news editors who are living in an ivory tower, far above the teeming masses who still care about God, family and life. They are so far out-of-touch that there is no longer any hope that they can report on what’s really happening in the world – only what they want to happen.
We can only thank God that their ratings are continuing to plummet as Americans increasing turn elsewhere for news that really matters.
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