Newsbusters
For the first time in history, the president is addressing the March for Life live via satellite. But does that mean that the media, who report on his every tweet, will finally give the pro-life marchers – and the millions of unborn they stand for – the coverage they deserve?
On Friday, more than 100,000 Americans are expected to attend the 45th March for Life. The rally condemns abortion around the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion in the U.S. But while the largest annual march in Washington, D.C. regularly attracts crowds from across the country, it’s frequently misrepresented or even censored by many in the media.
During their morning and evening news shows for the past five years, the broadcast networks have offered fewer than 24 minutes to the March for Life. To put that in perspective, the three networks spent more than three times that on the Women’s March in 2017 alone.
Most of that coverage, 21 minutes, 52 seconds of it, came during last year’s March for Life in 2017. That was largely due to President Donald Trump’s influence. Trump, who had promised to appoint a pro-life Supreme Court justice, sent Vice President Mike Pence and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway to address the March. He also, in an interview with ABC anchor David Muir just days before the event, called out the media for ignoring the march in years prior.
The president knew what he was talking about. Before 2017, the network coverage was next to nothing. In 2016, the networks devoted an embarrassing 35 seconds (22 seconds following the march, 13 seconds beforehand) to the event. The previous year, only CBS mentioned the march, allotting just 15 seconds in 2015.
In 2014, the networks devoted 46 seconds to the hundreds of thousands marching in Washington, D.C. Yet, ABC, NBC and CBS spent six times that on the National Zoo’s new panda cub and four-and-a-half times that on the Climate March.
For 2013, the march attracted a mere 17 seconds from the network news shows.
In response to the scarce coverage, the Media Research Center, along with other pro-life organizations, formed an Alliance for Fair Coverage of Life Issues in 2016 to demand the media “live up to the standards of journalistic integrity by covering life issues.”
The March for Life News Peg
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