Conquering Bias, Including Our Own

By Laura Echevarria
NRLC Director of Media Relations

Let's try a thought experiment. Let's say you've just met a woman who is an accomplished professional in her field and very pro-abortion in her politics.

Your/our first impulse, perhaps, would be less than charitable. But what if we discovered she was post-abortive?

Would we not suspect that her pro-abortion position is, in least in part, a way of "managing" her post-abortion experience? Wouldn't our first thought be that her position on abortion reflects her desire to defend her own abortion years earlier?

But what if this woman was a reporter? It may be much more common than we think.

It is easy to think of members of the media as adversaries. After all, media bias is so prevalent, it's hard to think of a reporter as anything but part of the pro-abortion media machine, right?

But let's rethink this all-too-common impression among pro-lifers. Besides getting us off on the wrong foot with reporters, this attitude must be "fact-checked" to make sure we understand (a) how often it's true, (b) that when it is true, why it is true, and (c) what we can do about it.

By no means, of course, am I suggesting that Post-Abortion Syndrome (PAS) explains why the vast majority of reporters are pro-abortion. Repeated surveys have shown that most reporters' opinions and lifestyles do not mirror those of the general public.

Yet caring about women who are abortion's second victim requires that we not forget that many reporters may be suffering from PAS or may have participated in an abortion by advising a friend or driving someone to an abortion clinic.

They may be hurting and, ironically, you may be the one person in a position to help her come to grips with what she has done.

So, if we want to work successfully with reporters who are most likely not on our side, we must begin by remembering that reporters are people too!

Make Friends with Your Local Reporters

Just this past month, the NRLC staff was in Pittsburgh for our 30th annual convention. I was very encouraged by the response of many people attending the media workshops to my assertion that getting to know reporters and developing a rapport with them goes a long way toward defeating pro-abortion bias in the media.

Each year, it seems more people nod their heads and afterward tell me of the success they have had in abiding by the philosophy that reporters are people too. Building a relationship is not the only thing you can do to combat media bias, but it is hugely important.

If you have attended any of the media workshops at the convention, you will hear us repeatedly say that accuracy and truth are the cornerstones to any working relationship with the media. We have to be far more careful with our information and facts because the media in general assumes that pro-abortion information is right and our information is wrong!

Remember the Golden Rule when dealing with reporters and don't get discouraged if not all of them respond to it. You will find that some will and those reporters will become key to getting your message out accurately.

Take this as Interpersonal Relationships 101. If someone is not predisposed to seeing you in human terms, then you can either write them off as something about which nothing can be done or as a opportunity to show her or him the error of their ways.

Building relationships with reporters is a constant, never-ending exercise but it is not a futile one. We in Media Relations build relationships every single day.

Some reporters have been calling us for years while others are new to a paper or network. We have to get to know them and they us, but the rules are the same.

Give a reporter a chance to learn about what it means to be pro-life. Change the caricatures they may carry around in their heads by showing them examples of the caring human beings that you are. It'll make a real difference.

Having succeeded at getting reporters to know you as a person, in turn take the opportunity to look past their profession and see them as people. You may be pleasantly surprised at both the professional and personal benefits of getting to know your members of the local media.