Challenging the Absence of Balance in the Media

By Laura Echevarria, Director of Media Relations

Unfair, imbalanced, and erroneous - - often these are the words that come to mind when pro-lifers see media coverage of the abortion issue. It is frustrating to know that they are so frequent I can list and catalog the errors by heart. If history be any guide, those mistakes will increase as we approach election day.

What can be done? Plenty. With paper and pen you can conceivably get a correction or a retraction within a day or two of the error and potentially change the way that particular media outlet covers a story in the future. At the very minimum, you have the opportunity to present the facts on the "Letters to the Editor" page of your local paper.

There are currently over 10,000 daily and weekly newspapers in the United States. There are approximately 200 television markets and hundreds of magazines. With the Internet, we have easily hundreds, if not thousands, of web magazines and news sources a click away.

When you spot an error or misstatement, challenge it by writing a letter.

By watching and then challenging poor abortion coverage if it appears in newscasts and newspapers in your area, you are acting as the front line of defense for the pro-life movement.

But how do you go about righting a wrong? Begin by calling your local paper and getting information regarding to whom you should send the letter; how he or she prefers to receive letters (e.g., fax, mail, or e-mail); and the maximum word length allowed.

In the opening of your letter, note the date and headline of the article at fault and, if possible, the page number where the article appeared. For a broadcast, note the date, broadcast hour (e.g., the 5:00 p.m. news), and the reporter who covered the issue. Then, if possible, quote the erroneous statement or statements. Follow this with a simple comment, such as "This is incorrect" or "This is erroneous."

(Be gracious and courteous but spell out the facts. Reporters like to pride themselves on being seen as "fair" and "balanced" in their reports. So when you write, tell them exactly what was unfair or imbalanced.)

Make sure you have facts and documentation to back up what you say. For example, say a report on the evening news by a local reporter includes the comment that the abortifacient RU486 " prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus." Wrong!

The facts are that a "fertilized egg" (the medical term is ova) implants within 72 hours after fertilization - - nearly a full two weeks before the average woman will even know she is pregnant. Since RU486 has to be used in a confirmed pregnancy, the woman would take RU486 to abort her child long after the " fertilized egg" stage. The developing human being would be classified as an embryo.

Those are the indisputable medical facts. Documentation for this and just about anything else you may need can be found on our web site (www.nrlc.org).

Close your letter with a polite challenge to the paper, such as " Readers of The Daily Post deserve to have the facts about RU486 presented fairly."

Be sure to include all of your contact information such as home and work phone numbers and your mailing address. Newspapers especially want to contact you if they choose to run your letter.

Last, keep a few things in mind about reporters. Usually reporters who get the story wrong fall into three major categories: the pro-abortion advocate, the reporter who simply cannot be wrong (at least in his eyes), and the reporter who is too trusting of pro-abortion groups, too lazy to work on understanding the story, or too rushed to do a thorough job.

The pro-abortion advocate may be someone who has had an abortion or participated in an abortion. She or he believes the falsehoods told by pro-abortion groups. They have to believe this in order to keep grief and anger at bay - - to think otherwise is to admit that they made a grievous mistake that cost a human life.

The errors these reporters make are often the most difficult to correct without the help of an editor or two because the reporters don't want to admit that they are wrong. We have to be compassionate toward reporters for this reason: we don't know their personal histories regarding abortion. Keep the tone of your letter gracious and compassionate. Reporters need to know that we care about them as people.

The reporter who doesn't necessarily have an agenda may make a mistake for any number of reasons. He or she may have been given "facts" by a pro-abortion group and took them at face value - - sometimes errors are made because of a lack of understanding of our issue or a lack of research.

Or he may be the kind of reporter who thinks he knows all the answers and is arrogant enough to assume that he is right. I have had this happen - - clearly the reporter was in the wrong but he didn't like being wrong and he certainly didn't like NRLC telling him he was wrong.

Paper and pen have been instrumental in promoting many noble causes and no more noble a cause has existed than that of the right to life. With your faithfulness, we will continue to challenge the media's assumptions about our issue.