Scott Whitlock
newsbusters.org
Scott Whitlock is the associate editor for the Media Research Center’s NewsBusters.org website. Previously, he was a contributing editor and the MRC’s senior news analyst. Scott’s work has been published in The Washington Times (here as well), National Review Online and other outlets.
If anything demonstrates the radical, lock-step view of abortion when it comes to the national media, it’s the difference between how the networks responded to Texas’s new pro-life law vs. the reaction to the extreme pro-abortion bill that passed the Democratic House on Friday. Texas resulted in 100 times more coverage over a two day period than the House bill (over a similar time period).
The legislation, if passed in the Senate, would allow abortion through all nine months and demolish bans on sex-selection abortion. Yet, from Friday night through Sunday night, ABC, CBS and NBC buried the extreme legislation, supported by every Democrat except one. The only morning or evening coverage came on Friday’s World News Tonight in a 14 second news brief. Anchor David Muir sanitized the gruesome nature of the bill, describing it only as a win for “a women’s right to choose.”
Tonight, the House passing a bill to guarantee a woman’s right to choose. It’s an attempt to establish a federal protection for choice as states approve strict new limits, including Texas where nearly all abortions have ended. It is unlikely to pass the Senate.
In contrast, the same networks deluged viewers with alarmed coverage in a 48 hour period on September 1 and 2 when the Texas pro-life law took effect, offering 26 minutes and 10 seconds of coverage. ABC offered the most: 11 minutes and 13 seconds, CBS followed with 8 minutes and 53 seconds and NBC was last with 6 minutes and 4 seconds.
The tone in the Texas coverage was much more alarming. World News Tonight anchor David Muir on September 1 highlighted Joe Biden calling “the law an unprecedented assault on a woman’s constitutional rights, vowing to fight.” On the CBS Evening News, anchor Norah O’Donnell opened the show by touting, “Well, tonight, President Biden is blasting the Supreme Court decision allowing Texas’s new abortion law to take effect.”
She warned, “It is the strictest law in the nation and leaves women seeking abortions with few options.” On the September 1 Today show, host Hota Kotb breathlessly opened the show this way: “Controversial law. One of the nation’s strictest abortion bans ever takes effect in Texas overnight.” On The September 1 Good Morning America, co-host George Stephanopoulos fretted, “Controversial law. One of the nation’s strictest abortion bans ever takes effect in Texas overnight.”
National Review on Thursday explained just how extreme the House Democratic legislation is:
Among other provisions, the bill, known as the Women’s Health Protection Act, would require states to allow abortions of an unborn baby viable outside the womb if one physician determines that an abortion would protect the woman’s health. The bill would likely supersede state laws mandating a 24-hour waiting period prior to an abortion procedure, as well as bans on sex-selective abortions.
Yet the same networks who erupted over Texas’s new law find nothing controversial in the radical Democratic push. It just shows, when it comes to abortion, nothing is too extreme for ABC, CBS and NBC.
NBC ignoring the bill on Friday was sponsored by Geico. CBS ignoring it was sponsored by Consumer Cellular.
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