Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Even though the mainstream media devoted a steady stream of breathless coverage during a school walkout to protest gun violence, there was barely a peep from the media when it came to covering another this week’s protest against the unjust taking of innocent lives.
Newsbusters is reporting on the scant coverage of the April 11 #ProLifeWalkout that involved 191 high schools and 81 colleges across the nation. Contrary to the gun protests, which were largely orchestrated by liberal adult organizers, this nationwide protest was put together in a matter of days by the students themselves.
But apparently, this wasn’t enough to make the news. An analysis by the Media Research Center found that the big three networks – CBS, ABC and NBC – “never once” mentioned the pro-life walkout. By comparison, they devoted more than 10 minutes to the March 24 gun walkout.
“No one is surprised that media bias is so obvious when it comes to abortion,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America in a statement to MRC Culture. “People who are passionate about the life issue, about mothers and their preborn infants, know that the media doesn’t like to cover this human rights atrocity.”
Because we’re used to being overlooked doesn’t make it right, however.
“It’s still worth noting that the media went all in for the anti-gun walkout, talking about lives lost and free speech, while ignoring the #ProLifeWalkout, in which we mourn the fact that one-fourth of this generation has been lost to abortion, and students have a right to speak about that as well,” she continued.
Yes, the gun walkout was much larger, but this is because it had help from powerful outsiders, Hawkins said.
“The Astroturf nature of the anti-gun walkout, with lots of money coming in from politically well-connected, national organizations and celebrities along with the media and school support definitely helped with their turnout,” she said. “Or at least it looked good on TV.”
Obviously, the media hopes that by hiding the reality that people care about lives lost to abortion just as much as they care about gun violence they can somehow make the pro-life movement go away.
Fat chance.
It’s easy to fight for a cause that has all kinds of popular support; it’s much harder to stand up for what’s right even when it’s out of fashion. No matter what the media does to try to make the prolife position invisible, it will never change the bottom line.
Their side has all the props, but our side has all the guts.
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