"Spin Sisters: How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness - - and Liberalism - - to the Women of America"

By Myrna Blyth

Reviewed by Laura Echevarria
NRLC Media Relations Director

While it may seem to pro-lifers as if the media elite meet in dark, smoke-filled rooms to plot how best to tilt media coverage as far to the pro-abortion side as possible, if we are to believe some insiders that's simply not the case. What does happen quite commonly can be summed up in the _expression "birds of a feather flock together."

This does not change the reality of bias, of course. But it does give us a better handle on how best to combat anything-but-objective news coverage.

Myrna Blyth, former editor of Ladies Home Journal and founding editor of the now-defunct MORE magazine, centers her criticisms on the world of women's magazines and news anchors in her book Spin Sisters: How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness - - and Liberalism to the Women - - of America. Blyth has spent her entire career around these women and knows of their considerable influence and out-of-the-mainstream beliefs.

Most of the book covers how women such as Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, and their like-minded media coterie of "sisters" assume that all American women think as they do. Their views are a given, like gravity. Those women (or men) who believe otherwise are dismissed as conservatives, pro-lifers, or evangelicals, too ignorant and ill-informed to be taken seriously.

That they hobnob together is not surprising. That they don't realize how wholly unrepresentative they are is surprising.

A favorite spot for lunch is Michael's in New York City ($27 for a Cobb Salad for lunch). They spend their weekends at their "country" homes in Connecticut or upstate New York and ask to be invited into our living rooms with the promise of the latest woman-as-victim story, a practice that Blyth despises.

It is worth remembering that, for the most part, Blyth believes these "Spin Sisters" don't set out to twist and distort reality. They just see the world through lenses few American women can afford or would want.

As Bernard Goldberg, author of two best-selling books, Bias and Arrogance, has said many times, these media elitists have persuaded themselves that their positions on the most controversial issues of the day, such as abortion, "are mainstream positions." Why? "[B]ecause all their friends in the bubble think the same way as they do."

Blyth doesn't spend a great deal of time on the abortion issue until Chapter Ten. But she makes up for in a section subheaded, "The No-Compromise Issue."

Even though she describes herself as "pro-choice" (as does Goldberg, by the way), she pulls no punches. "For the Spin Sisters, however, one issue - - abortion - - is the binding pledge of their sorority. The issue on which there can never be any equivocation or discussion."

Blyth is not a pro-lifer, by any means, but she is open to evidence and aware of the Spin Sisters' near-monolithic pro-abortion thinking:

Let me tell you that I am pro-choice, but pro-choice in the same conflicted way that many women are. We don't want Roe v. Wade to be overturned. At the same time, we are uncomfortable with a law that allows abortion for just any reason at all. That seems too selfish. The debate about abortion may be partly about a woman's right to choose but few of us who have had a sonogram and heard a fetal heartbeat can pretend that this issue is not a more profound life-and-death decision than the gang at NOW would like you to believe.

She then goes on in the same chapter to describe the misinformation campaign used by pro-abortion groups during the debate on partial-birth abortion. (Looks like she went to the NRLC web site to start her research.) Blyth helps us see that the Spin Sisters were willing dupes.

Blyth cites polling data that document the average American woman's feelings about abortion. She compares that with what the "Spin Sisters" feel it should be. The result? What you already knew but now find confirmed by an insider: a vast majority of American women reject abortion-on-demand and are far closer to our position than to Katie's and Diane's and Barbara's position.

If you would like to read up on how the media tries to manipulate women on a host of issues, check out Blyth's book from your local library. For a permanent addition to your bookshelf, it's worth the $25 hardcover price.

A word of caution to parents: Before you allow your child to read this book for a research project for school, you will need to edit or black out certain sections Blyth uses to illustrate how mixed up women's magazines can be. Some of the examples used are graphic quotes of sex suggestions that are often found in Cosmopolitan or Mademoiselle magazines.