NRL News
Page 20
April 2009
Volume 36
Issue 5

NRLC’s Media Relations and Communications Departments: Keeping the Pro-Life Perspective Visible and Essential
By NRLC Media Relations Department

One of the primary tasks for all of us at National Right to Life is to disseminate accurate information about the life issues to the public. Through the Media Relations and Communications Departments, our job is to make sure that information reaches members of the press as well. The latter is no small task. And that’s not merely because the news cycle is now 24/7 and because there is a growing army of outlets hungry for information.

It’s no secret to veterans of the Pro-Life Movement that the mainstream media is, at best, misinformed about the life issues and, at worst, overtly hostile. The daily challenge we face in getting the mainstream media to report accurately, much less fairly, on life issues, is evident in every newspaper you pick up.

The mainstream media, dependable for their ability to put President Obama in a good light, cannot be counted on to be reliable in their coverage of life issues and the President’s blatantly pro-abortion agenda. However, the NRLC Communications Department is recognized as a reputable pro-life voice and that goes a long way in the battle to give life a fair hearing.

Through press releases, statements, and personal phone calls, the Media Relations Department reaches out to reporters and producers to provide them with accurate facts from a pro-life perspective about the current issues on which they are reporting. Our timely and targeted press releases in response to Obama’s pro-abortion actions have drawn notice from reporters at the Washington Post, New York Times, and Chicago Tribune, just to name a few.

We have our work cut out for us monitoring the coverage that plays out on the life issues. When a reporter or news agency gets a fact wrong or mischaracterizes the pro-life position, as a reputable pro-life source, National Right to Life responds with a polite but assertive correction.

Counting solely on the mainstream media to be our megaphone to the public would be foolish. That’s why the Communications Department produces its own daily radio show, Pro-Life Perspective.

PLP is NRLC’s daily five-minute radio commentary. It is written, recorded, and produced by the Communications staff and hosted by NRLC President Wanda Franz, Ph.D. It currently airs across the country on over 300 (primarily religious) radio stations. Pro-Life Perspective educates and motivates pro-life Americans to act in defense of the innocent human lives being targeted by Obama’s abortion agenda.

In addition, National Right to Life provides public service announcements (PSAs), Perspectives on Life, in English and Spanish, free of charge to radio stations and chapters nationwide.

The Communications Department also works hand-in-hand with other National Right to Life departments to create powerful advertisements that are placed in national, regional, and religious media. All promotion materials serve the same goal, promoting the core pro-life message and respect for life.

But communicating with the media and generating our own materials is only part of what makes National Right to Life’s voice instantly recognized in Washington. You, our grassroots pro-lifers, are the power behind the scenes. What you do in your home states in indispensable in helping the Communications Department to spread the pro-life message.

Keep on the watch for the next step in Obama’s Abortion Agenda, and when it comes check our communications blog (http://nrlcomm.wordpress.com) for NRLC’s response. Use our talking points to write your own letter to the editor, or an email alert to your friends and family.

If you keep a blog, subscribe to the Communications Blog so you can post our releases. Use your Facebook and Twitter accounts to link to the NRLC release.

In our technology-saturated lifestyle, we each have the power to not just use but be the alternative media and make sure the pro-life voice is heard.