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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

The Extremists Who Report the News

I’m sending Richard Mourdock some money and you should too. I want to explain to you just how extremist the media is on abortion and just how much spinning in favor of killing kids the media does.

According to Gallup polling, roughly a quarter of the population supports Richard Mourdock’s position on abortion — that the only exception in support of abortion should be the life of the mother.

According to Gallup polling, roughly a quarter of the population supports Barack Obama’s position on abortion — any time during pregnancy until the moment of delivery. And of course, we all know that Barack Obama actually supports infanticide too in cases when a baby survives an abortion attempt, but OMG Politifact claims otherwise!!!!!!!

When the media chooses to report stories about abortion, the media consistently chooses to report stories like Richard Mourdock’s statement and Todd Akin’s statement, both of whom believe that children conceived as a result of rape are still human beings entitled not to be ripped apart in utero and scrapped out of the womb or whatever procedure the child killers use these days. As an aside, during the Mourdock controversy few in the media reported that Mourdock’s Democratic opponent has sponsored pro-life legislation with Todd Akin.

When you see the anchor on the news broadcast or read the reporter’s story in print, understand that they more likely than not are perfectly and fully fine with killing kids — it’s a choice, not murder to them. More than that, many of them are perfectly fine killing the children until the moment of delivery.

The contrast in media coverage between the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention was striking. The GOP maintained its long held position on abortion and the media went into overdrive discussing it and the so called “war on women.” The Democrats, on the other hand, abandoned their “safe, legal, and rare” position on abortion from the Clinton era and moved back to abortion on demand. The media barely made a sound about it, even though it is well outside the mainstream of American opinion on abortion. As Josh Trevino noted on twitter, “Barack Obama is the only President in American history known to have described a child as a punishment.” But the media, in 2008, spent little time on that.

The reporters and news anchors who cover abortion politics are often aligned with the same minority of Americans who support abortion on demand. It happens to be roughly the same number as those who oppose abortion in all excepts except the life of the mother. These members of the media have a vested interest in painting the pro-lifers as extreme and themselves as in the mainstream, despite an equal percentage of Americans agreeing with both sides.

The fact is they are outside the mainstream. Most Americans accept restrictions on abortion. In fact, more American support Mitt Romney’s position about abortion — rape, incest, and the life of the mother as the exception to abortion — than the average member of the media’s extremist position.

But the pro-child killers in the media would rather conflate Richard Mourdock’s position as Mitt Romney’s position instead of accepting their own fringe status.

Then, of course, they also shape the news.

For a number of years, since RedState really grew in prominent, I have often given reporters the names of many pro-life women to put on television and radio or interview for print publications. Inevitably, however, I find that the media puts pro-life men against pro-abortion women. It is an intentional bias. The various pro-life female leaders in the country make up one of the most intentionally ignored demographics in America. There are plenty of them out there. But it is the men who get the calls.

It is the media trying to convey that Christofascist men in the GOP want to stop women from exercising “their rights.” It’s part of the growing trend to call the pro-life community “anti-choice” or “anti-abortion” as an editorial control instead of using the old media editorial direction to call various groups by what those groups choose to be called as a group.

It’s the way the game has been played for far too long. It should also be a wake up call to the pro-life community that they need to do a better job working with pro-life candidates so, when they are asked the difficult questions, they do not walk into awkward soundbites about which they must do damage control.

The pro-life community has gotten far too comfortable being in the majority in this country. They should not take for granted that a majority of Americans consider themselves pro-life when the majority of people delivering the news to that pro-life majority are actively hostile to the very notion of protecting the life of Americans not yet outside the birth canal.

I’m sending Richard Mourdock some money and you should too. His position is one millions of Americans share, but you’d never know it from the media’s coverage.

For you reporters who have made it through this, here are the questions you never ask candidates who are okay with killing kids.

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COMMENTS

  • Xasteius

    The pro-life community also needs to take some communication classes and re-read Moe’s 10 Media Rules.

  • freemkts

    Here’s what bugs me about Mourdock’s comments. The whole abortion issue is a set up to see if conservatives will say something dumb, and this one did. Mourdock should have dodged the question. They ask about abortion you answer about the economy. They try again you attack Obamacare. Had Mourdock done that liberals would complain that he is being dishonest, blah, blah, blah, just like they are with Romney. And guess what? They’d still be losing! This was a rookie mistake plain and simple, and an inexcusable one in light of the Todd Akin fiasco. You want to be honest talk to a priest. You want to win elections learn to play the game! Don’t swing at pitches in the dirt!

  • Dave_A

    And this is why we should not be so quick to replace shoe-in incumbents with wet-behind-the-ears inexperienced challengers, over ideological-incorrectness –

    UNLESS the GOP learns how to herd cats (Er, would-be-freshmen) and keep these guys on some sort of sane, press-aware message….

    It doesn’t matter how conservative someone is compared to the incumbent, if they do something STUPID during the campaign and thus get a Democrat elected to a formerly safe GOP seat!

  • jaykali

    Agreed. I think you can be a pro life politician and not say dumb things on a very sensitive, divisive topic.

  • jaykali

    I agree with Erick completely. I also think Mourdock and Akin do not help their case when they say something really stupid. With a topic this sensitive, there are land mines everywhere. You can be pro life without saying these kinds of things. There are much better ways to get your point across. I get upset with these politicians bc the media will immediately try to connect these guys to the Romney ticket. And we don’t need that right now.

  • danzman

    Erick, why is it ok for the government to force a woman, or girl, to have a baby? Aren’t you just sacrificing the liberty of the born for the life of the unborn? I pray that no woman chooses to end her pregnancy prematurely. And for minors, I’m all for waiting periods, parental notification and any counseling that may help her reconsider. It just seems hypocritical that people who cry for limited government believe its ok for that government to compel someone to give birth, except in circumstances that the government deems are acceptable. If abortion were banned in the U.S. tomorrow, what would be the charge against a female seeking one? Aggravated assault? Attemped murder? What would be the penalty? 5 years out in 2? So, we’d have young women either in federal prison or released with federal felony (couldn’t be a misdemeanor, could it?) convictions on their records AND the potential for many others (girls) to be maimed or killed themselves as the abortions are pushed underground with no oversight or regulation at all. Again, I don’t want anyone to have an abortion. I also don’t want the government telling anyone that gets pregnant that they have to have it.

  • Bill S

    Try reading.

    The fact is they are outside the mainstream. Most Americans accept restrictions on abortion. In fact, more American support Mitt Romney’s position about abortion — rape, incest, and the life of the mother as the exception to abortion — than the average member of the media’s extremist position.

  • kipling

    Or you could say that Mike Pence is more concerned about getting elected then confronting such obvious media bias. Mitt Romney has the same problem.

  • kipling

    Lugar might have been a shoe-in incumbent but he is also a RINO. It had little to do with ideological correctness and more to do with a RINO who enabled the Democrats.

  • deltawing

    Straw man argument. Mainstream conservatives don’t believe that the government should never dictate what is “acceptable”. Governments obviously have the right to create and enforce laws regarding criminal activities. The pro-life crowd happens to believe that abortion should be outlawed. Placing legal registrictions on abortion doesn’t preclude the existence of limited government.

  • http://www.erickerickson.org Erick Erickson

    A life is a life and all life is sacred. We should not choose between one or the other. We have an obligation to speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves, including children in the womb.

  • loosetooth

    As a clear-eyed progressive, I agree with you 100% on the media bias issue. But I think your numbers are misleading re: public opinion on abortion. From polling report.com:
    CBS/NYT 10 year survey, most current numbers with 10 year highs and lows in parenthesis
    Generally Available: 42% (31-42%)
    Available Under Stricter Limits: 35% (35-43%)
    Not Permitted: 20% (19-26%)
    In this 3-option survey, we see support for your thesis that American support more restrictions. But what does that really mean?

    Let’s look at a 4-option survey- WaPO/Kaiser, asking the same question for 3 years:
    Legal in All Cases: 19% (17-21% range over 3 years)
    Legal in Most Cases: 36% (33-36%)
    Illegal in Most Cases: 25% (25-30%)
    Illegal in All Cases: 17% (15-18%)

    It seems that the majority of Americans think abortion should be legal in “most cases”. But what the heck does “most cases” mean?
    I could only find one poll that breaks it down by trimester- Gallup from 2003 (!):
    1st Trimester: 66% legal- 29% illegal
    2nd Trimester: 25% legal – 68% illegal
    3rd Trimester: 10% legal- 84% legal

    This data is old, but I draw two conclusions:
    1. Progressives are extreme if they want abortion “always legal”
    2. Most Americans do not hold an absolute moral objection to abortion. To them, it is not always “killing babies”. in fact 2/3 of us want abortion to be legal in the first 3 months.

  • justperhaps45

    Your message gets lost as the invective gets stronger.

  • cbartlett

    Dittos Common_Cents. I think any liberal, including the media-types, should be asked that question any time the abortion issue is raised. If killing a pregnant women is considered a double murder, why is abortion legal in this country? They never have a good answer, the discussion stops and we move on to something else. There is no “sound-byte” to cherry-pick and repeat on the 24-hour news cycle.