Jennings Delivers Saddam Spin, "Encouraged" by U.S. Death -- 01/22/2003 CyberAlert

1. Jennings Delivers Saddam Spin, "Encouraged" by U.S. Death
Anchoring from Baghdad, Peter Jennings delivered a Saddam Hussein-friendly spin, such as how Hussein "will undoubtedly be encouraged by the latest violence against Americans in next-door Kuwait." He decided that "when Saddam Hussein looks out from here, he also sees many of America's allies saying that President Bush is in too much of a hurry to go to war." Jennings also enthused over how he saw "several hundred artists and writers walking through the streets of Baghdad to say thank you to Saddam Hussein. He had just increased their monthly financial support."

2. Jennings Also Relays How Saddam Sleeps Well
On Tuesday's Good Morning America Jennings served as a conduit for the Iraqi regime's propaganda line about how Hussein claimed "he was pretty calm and unlike some officials in other governments, he said, the moment his head hit the pillow, he went to sleep and he did not need to take sleeping pills."

3. Washington Post Admires Fox News = Nazis Sign
Monday's Washington Post "Style" section loved peace march signs calling President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld "The Asses of Evil" and suggesting the Fox News Channel is a Nazi stronghold.

4. Reality of America-Hating Protesters That Nets Ignore
The networks portrayed the anti-war protesters as made up of average Americans, "grandparents," "honor students," "soccer moms," "Republicans," "Black and white, Democrat and Republican, young and old." But in a National Review Online piece, Daniel Flynn recounted the reality he encountered at the march. He saw America-hating demonstrators with "Bush is the Real Terrorist" signs who were convinced Bush knew in advance of the 9-11 attacks. "It was like when Hitler burned down the Reichstag," more than one remarked. The Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld plan, one claimed, "is to build a worldwide planetary death machine."

5. Goldberg Sees Bias in Protest Coverage
Bernard Goldberg accurately observed on FNC's Hannity & Colmes: "If there's a demonstration with a lot of liberals in it, against the war, they're going to minimize the craziest of the liberals."

6. Nets Skip Over Sharpton's Racial Hate-Mongering
Speaking of glossing over unpleasantness related to a liberal leader, in reading short items Tuesday night on Al Sharpton making his presidential bid official, neither CBS's Dan Rather or NBC's Tom Brokaw mentioned his nefarious history of racial hate-mongering. Nor did either tag Sharpton as a liberal.

7. Pro-Life Guest Appalls Hosts of ABC's The View
The View gang ganged up, though politely, on actress Jennifer O'Neill when she told how she regrets having an abortion and how pregnancy sites with which she's affiliated inform mothers of the physical and emotional risk of an abortion. Her variance from the "pro-choice" line clearly appalled the regulars on the ABC daytime show, especially Joy Behar and former NBC reporter Star Jones.

Jennings Delivers Saddam Spin, "Encouraged"
by U.S. Death

Peter Jennings' self-created Helsinki Syndrome? Anchoring part of Tuesday's World News Tonight from Baghdad, Jennings delivered a Saddam Hussein-like spin on the news of the day, emphasizing how the Iraqi dictator would see the news, including how Hussein "will undoubtedly be encouraged by the latest violence against Americans in next-door Kuwait" where a civilian was killed. Without uttering the word terrorism, Jennings stressed how "anti-Americanism in the region may be a comfort to Saddam Hussein."

Jennings opened the January 21 program by telling viewers how "it looks from here, maybe it looks from everywhere, that Mr. Bush is more and more determined to attack the Iraqis." Jennings soon decided that "when Saddam Hussein looks out from here, he also sees many of America's allies saying that President Bush is in too much of a hurry to go to war."

Jennings also claimed that "when Saddam Hussein looks out at the rest of the Middle East today, he will see anxious governments which are not certain exactly what the Bush administration intends to do with the huge number of men and women and equipment that is being gathered on Iraq's borders." But Hussein's people are thrilled that he supports the arts as Jennings highlighted how he saw "several hundred artists and writers walking through the streets of Baghdad to say thank you to Saddam Hussein. He had just increased their monthly financial support." Jennings conceded they may feel differently in private, "but on this occasion they were praising his defense of the homeland in the face of American threats."

Below is a rundown of how Jennings teased his show and introduced all the Iraq-related stories and then those are each followed by how CBS's Dan Rather and NBC's Tom Brokaw described the same events on the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News. You'll see quite a contrast in tone and spin:

> Show teases:
Jennings: "On World News Tonight this Tuesday, President Bush says there are no options left: Saddam Hussein is facing war the administration says it will go it alone if need be....An American killed in Kuwait: Anti-Americanism in the region may be a comfort to Saddam Hussein."

Rather: "Tonight's headlines: Another terror attack on Americans in the Gulf."

Brokaw: "Showdown over Iraq: President Bush aims tough words at Saddam Hussein and also at U.S. allies who want more time."

> Show lead:
Jennings led the show as transcribed by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth: "Good evening from Baghdad. Looking out at the world from Baghdad is never an easy matter for most Iraqis. They can only see what the government lets them see. When Saddam Hussein looks out at the world today, he can see that the Bush administration has taken a very public position that every option but war has been exhausted. The President said himself today that Iraq still has weapons of mass destruction and will not disarm. Mr. Bush said Iraq is delaying and deceiving, which means that we're going to start at the White House tonight where ABC's Terry Moran is, as always. Terry, it looks from here, maybe it looks from everywhere, that Mr. Bush is more and more determined to attack the Iraqis."

Rather: "Good evening. And angry President Bush insisted today Iraq is not disarming. The chances for war, possibly in six to eight weeks, are growing. Already a kind of hit and run war is being waged just south of the Iraqi border in Kuwait. So far, most of the casualties are Americans. There was deadly new terror attack there today and for the first time the targets were military-connected civilians."

Brokaw: "Tonight the President and key members of his national security team have opened a new phase of their campaign against Saddam Hussein and against allies at the UN who are making it clear they believe more time is needed for the weapons inspectors. Today the Russians said bluntly the majority of the UN Security Council is against military action at this time. All of that could change, of course, when the weapons inspectors make their formal report to the UN is less than a week. But as NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports tonight, the President is pushing hard, now."

> Intro to second story:
Jennings: "Now, when Saddam Hussein looks out from here, he also sees many of America's allies saying that President Bush is in too much of a hurry to go to war. And over the last several days, it begins to look very much as if the administration is going to get active opposition from other important members of the UN Security Council."

Rather: "At the White House today the President dismissed appeals from at home and abroad for a slowdown in the momentum toward war."

> Intro to American killed by terrorist story (for CBS, see lead story above):
Jennings: "And finally, on this subject, when Saddam Hussein looks out at the rest of the Middle East today, he will see anxious governments which are not certain exactly what the Bush administration intends to do with the huge number of men and women and equipment that is being gathered on Iraq's borders. And he will undoubtedly be encouraged by the latest violence against Americans in next-door Kuwait."

Brokaw: "It turns out that Americans in uniform are not the only ones in harms way in the Middle East. Two civilians doing contract work for the U.S. military were ambushed today in their car near in U.S. military base in Kuwait. And one was killed. The United States is calling this a terrorist attack."

More on Jennings: Toward the end of the broadcast Jennings admired how the Iraqi state "has always supported the arts." Over video of a crowd walking and holding up pictures of Hussein, Jennings enthused:
"Finally this evening, from here in Baghdad, about a nation that is more than Saddam Hussein. For many years now, the United States and most Americans have looked at Iraq and tended to see only its dictator. But this a country with a very long history of, among other things, arts and letters.
"This week we were surprised to see several hundred artists and writers walking through the streets of Baghdad to say thank you to Saddam Hussein. He had just increased their monthly financial support. Cynical, you could argue with this particular time, but the state has always supported the arts, and some of the most creative people in the Arab world have always been Iraqis. And whatever they think about Saddam Hussein in the privacy of their homes, on this occasion they were praising his defense of the homeland in the face of American threats."

Jennings' "reporting" is certainly no threat to Hussein.

Jennings Also Relays How Saddam Sleeps Well

The Saddam Hussein-friendly spin from Peter Jennings on Tuesday night was presaged on Tuesday's Good Morning America, MRC analyst Jessica Anderson observed. From Baghdad, Jennings served as a conduit for the Iraqi regime's propaganda line about how Hussein claimed "he was pretty calm and unlike some officials in other governments, he said, the moment his head hit the pillow, he went to sleep and he did not need to take sleeping pills."

Jennings added that Iraqi officials "say the Bush administration knows they do not have weapons of mass destruction and it can be proved."

The relevant exchange on the January 21 Good Morning America between co-host Charles Gibson and Jennings:
Gibson: "And Peter, I gather Saddam Hussein there has been bragging about how soundly he sleeps at night."
Peter Jennings: "Yeah, I wouldn't say he was actually bragging, Charlie. He was trying to make a point to some of his military officers that given all the tension in the region, as we see in Kuwait this morning, he was pretty calm and unlike some officials in other governments, he said, the moment his head hit the pillow, he went to sleep and he did not need to take sleeping pills. And his chief science adviser, in his first American television interview with us today, said that all of this discussion outside Iraq about Saddam Hussein possibly getting exiled in another country were, were simply ridiculous, to use his words. You know, there's been a lot of talk in the last couple of days about whether or not Iraq is making any progress with the United Nations weapons inspectors, and they have made this deal to allow some of their scientists to talk to the weapons inspectors in private -- Amir Al-Saadi, the man who knows more about weapons of mass destruction here than anybody else, encouraged them....
"Charlie, for now the Iraqis are in the position of having to wait until the UN weapons inspectors report to the Security Council of the United Nations next Monday. They detect, of course, the impatience in the Bush administration. They say the Bush administration knows they do not have weapons of mass destruction and it can be proved, and they will be quite happy today to hear the news from France that France will oppose in the Security Council a resolution authorizing war against Iraq. The French say, as of now, the proof simply isn't there."

If ABC ever tires of Jennings he should fit right in a Al-Jazeera.

Washington Post Admires Fox News =
Nazis Sign

Monday's Washington Post "Style" section loved peace march signs calling President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld "The Asses of Evil" and suggesting the Fox News Channel is a Nazi stronghold.

The admiration, the MRC's Tim Graham noticed, came in a story plastered across the top half of the January 20 Style section, as an "essay" titled, "The Art of Peace: Deploying Posters and Body Paint, the Antiwarriors Take a Scattershot Approach." Graham wrote up this item for CyberAlert:

Style writer Hank Stuever began: "It's the peacemakers -- right? -- who are blessed." A paragraph later, he declared: "Blessed are the people who make great signs: 'The Asses of Evil' reads one, with pictures of the president, vice president, and secretary of defense; 'Real Men Wage Peace'; 'Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer, Ein News Channel -- Fox News; FREEZING out here for PEACE!' Or consider the absurdity of 'Drop Panties, Not Bombs,' a giant banner covered with women's underpants."

Stuever went on to bless Al Sharpton and Jessica Lange for speaking out, and "all the fun-loving lefties in their plastic Dubya masks...Bless 'em, because they usually get such perfunctory, objectively dismissive press." Stuever proceeded to lament "all the ambivalence from network news."

Really? Network coverage was actually glowingly positive, as the Monday and Tuesday CyberAlerts documented. See
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030120.asp#1
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030120.asp#2
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030121.asp#1

Back to Stuever, he was pleased by the turnout: "It's a good world where college students still get on buses because they believe, and because they're mad. How tragic to skip the bus to Washington -- right or wrong, for or against -- when you're young."

Even so, Stuever offered advice on how the leftists could have more impact: "More than anything, this peace march needed more Rockville and less rock. It needed more newcomers. It needed more church congregations. It needed more Disney Worlders. To the rest of everybody, the peace movement seems naive and cluttered, earnestly opposed to the possibility of war, protesting something that has not technically happened yet."

For Steuver's piece in full:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15570-2003Jan19.html

Reality of America-Hating Protesters That
Nets Ignore

Network coverage of the average, normal Americans, "grandparents," "honor students," "soccer moms," "Republicans," "Black and white, Democrat and Republican, young and old," versus the reality of the angry, America-hating demonstrators which the networks ignored but which a writer for National Review Online was unable to avoid in the crowd.

He saw "Bush is the Real Terrorist" signs and discovered many were convinced Bush knew in advance of the 9-11 attacks. "It was like when Hitler burned down the Reichstag," more than one remarked. The Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld plan, one claimed, "is to build a worldwide planetary death machine."

In a piece posted on Monday, Daniel J. Flynn, author of Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation's Greatness, recounted what he encountered at Saturday's march in DC: "While a small number of families, political moderates, and senior citizens salted the ranks of Saturday's march, a much-larger contingent escaped the notice of most journalists. Waving inflammatory signs, wearing scary costumes, and partaking in street theatre, the anti-American extremists who dominated the event were hard to miss. Yet, they were somehow overlooked in most of the press accounts of the protest."

Below I've excerpted the clauses and sentences with quotes of what protesters said to Flynn and what he saw and then that is contrasted with the soundbites aired by the networks.

> From Flynn's article:

-- "Reesa Rosenberg, a Muslim from New Jersey, came to the nation's capital bearing a sign that read 'Bush Is the Real Terrorist.' 'When it comes down to it, it's all for oil and global domination,' she believes. 'It's almost like Hitler.' Rosenberg contends that people in the U.S. government had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. 'Another thing about 9/11 -- the United States is like a stuck-up little bitch. They just do and take all of what they please. I mean, 9/11 was terrible, but it was the first terrorist attack on this country. It's like, 'oh, no!' Somebody broke the United States' nail, now the whole earth is going to blow up.'"

-- "Bush 'definitely knew in advance,' remarked John Bostrom, who traveled to the march from Staten Island. 'It was like when Hitler burned down the Reichstag.' Why would the Bush administration refuse to act on its prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks? 'What they want to do, basically, is build a worldwide planetary death machine that's technology driven, computer run, and hooked up to satellites that cover every square inch of the globe, and allows them to target and eliminate anything they want to wherever they want to,' maintained Bostrom. 'This is their plan. It's black and white. That's what they've been calling for. That's their strategy and they're obsessed by it.'"

-- "'I saw 9/11 as the Reichstag,' maintained Chris King. 'I'll compare it to what Cassius did to Spartacus back in Rome. I'll compare it to the Lusitania, to the Maine. I'll do it, every single time.' The bearded Vermonter suspects 9/11 'was allowed to happen.'"

-- "Placards read: 'USA Is #1 Terrorist,' 'Bush Is a Terrorist,' 'The NYPD Are Terrorists Too,' and 'Get the Terrorists Out of the White House.'"

-- "And as for Ms. Rosenberg, the Garden State Muslim who believes the U.S. government let 9/11 occur, she summed up the real theme of the 'antiwar' protest by proclaiming that America should be viewed as 'very scary and threatening' by the rest of the world."

For Flynn's piece in full, "The Anti-Warriors: On the streets with the protesters," go to:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-flynn012003.asp

Now, compare that reality to how the networks portrayed, as culled from the January 20 and 21 CyberAlerts, the Washington, DC protesters:

-- MSNBC's Jeannie Ohm: "They came from different parts of the country, but all armed with the same message."
Man in crowd: "The message is that the United States, the people of the United States are not ready to go to war."
Woman in crowd: "Let's take care of our schools, let's take care of health care, let's take care of the issues in this country."
Ohm: "As the military buildup continues in the Persian Gulf, a growing number of people are speaking out against a war with Iraq: Students, grandparents, businessmen, politicians, teachers, actors and activists, standing shoulder to shoulder in protest."

-- CNN's Kathleen Koch spotlighted one attendee: "Seventy-six-year-old Ava Cutler was a Jewish teenager in Budapest, Hungary when her country was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1944....Cutler isn't a member of any protest group. She decided to come on her own, catch a ride with a busload of young people, all to stop another war, to stop more suffering."

-- ABC's Lisa Sylvester: "Braving frigid temperatures, they traveled across the country -- black and white, Democrat and Republican, young and old. Their worries are varied."
Saladin Muhammed, anti-war demonstrator, in the crowd: "There would be a disproportionate number of people of color that would have to engage in this war."

More Sylvester: "Charley Richardson and his wife worry about their son, a Marine in the Persian Gulf."
Charley Richardson, in DC crowd: "Every morning when we wake up we think about him, we think about where he is, we think about how much we love him."

-- ABC's Geoff Morrell profiled the Blakes, "who traveled all night" to the DC protest. "She's an honor student, he's a medical doctor," Morrell explained, who "fear President Bush is rushing to war with Iraq," so "they rode a bus all night from Asheville, North Carolina. On board were businessmen, soccer moms and military veterans -- all members of the same church."
Morrell beefed up Dr. Blake's credentials: "Dan Blake supported the 1991 Gulf War, but says this President hasn't convinced him Saddam Hussein is a threat to the U.S. or its allies."
Blake: "I would like to see a smoking gun that makes me think well, my family, my country, my community is in danger now."

ABC's Bill Blakemore, previewing the upcoming march on Friday night, from New York: "Never mind the cold, they're going to protest. Democrats and Republicans. Many middle-aged. From all walks of life. And some students. Nancy and Steve Boyda are Republicans, he's a Vietnam veteran."
Steve Boyda, Vietnam Veteran, on bus to DC: "As an American, as a voter, as a participant on this side of the fence, I want to hold our leaders accountable to showing us why we make these kinds of decisions."
Blakemore: "There's a variety of worries.
Woman on bus: "These people have no control over what their government does and we're about to go kill them and there is nothing they can do about it."
Another woman: "We want to say, we love our country very dearly, we love it so much, that we don't want our country to make a horrible mistake."

-- CBS's Joie Chen at the DC march: "Telluride, Colorado sent its peace offering: 1200 of the town's 2000 residents signed it."
Woman in the crowd in DC: "They want our message heard."
Chen: "Others came from Columbus, Mississippi."
Woman in DC crowd: "You know, I just don't think I could sacrifice my son for ideals."
Chen: "From Pittsburgh."
Man in DC crowd: "I don't want to be a citizen of the world's biggest imperialist state."
Chen: "From across the Potomac in Reston, Virginia."
Woman in crowd: "I did vote for Bush and if I could withdraw my vote, I would withdraw my vote."

Chen celebrated: "Young, old, veterans and veteran activists united in the effort to stop the war before it starts. What may have kept the protest from growing larger, the weather. It was the capital's coldest morning of the year..."

For full rundowns of all those stories with the very selective soundbites chosen to make the protesters seem as appealing as possible, see the January 20 and 21 CyberAlerts:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030120.asp#1
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030120.asp#2
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030121.asp#1

Goldberg Sees Bias in Protest Coverage

Bernard Goldberg backed up the point made by National Review Online (see item #4 above) and documented in CyberAlert that the networks whitewash the ugly side of left-wing anti-war protests.

Goldberg, the CBS News veteran who penned the book Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, appeared on Monday's Hannity and Colmes on FNC. MRC analyst Patrick Gregory caught this observation from Goildberg:
"I think America's split on this potential war, but you know where I think it does come out, the kind of bias as it portends to Iraq -- if there's a demonstration with a lot of liberals in it, against the war, they're going to minimize the craziest of the liberals, even if they make up a large percentage of the people in the demonstration."

See item #4 above for confirmation.

Nets Skip Over Sharpton's Racial
Hate-Mongering

Speaking of glossing over unpleasantness related to a liberal leader, in reading short items Tuesday night on Al Sharpton making his presidential bid official, neither CBS's Dan Rather or NBC's Tom Brokaw mentioned his nefarious history of racial hate-mongering and hustling. Nor did either tag Sharpton as a liberal.

Sharpton made his name by promoting the lie that an underage black girl was kidnapped and raped by a white man and has used racial appeals which have spurred violence against "interlopers" in black neighborhoods. For a good rundown of Sharpton's outrageous record, check out a January 16 column by Jeff Jacoby:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/016/oped/Hypocrisy_on_Sharpton+.shtml

On the January 21 CBS Evening News, Dan Rather announced: "Saying he could draw more Hispanic and other voters to the Democratic Party, the Reverend Al Sharpton today joined the field seeking the Democrats' presidential nomination. Sharpton, a 48-year-old civil rights activist, said that too many presidential candidates are quote, 'rich white men,' and that he is the only one, again quote, 'anti-war, anti-death penalty and anti-tax cut.'"

Over on the NBC Nightly News, Tom Brokaw related: "And another Democrat is officially in the race for the 2004 presidential nomination. New York's the Reverend Al Sharpton, who has been campaigning and raising money for weeks now, formally filed his candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission today in Washington. He declared that no other candidate can quote, 'speak to young people, disaffected minorities, women, gays and lesbians with more credibility.'"

Pro-Life Guest Appalls Hosts of ABC's The View

The View gang ganged up, though politely, on a guest on Tuesday who dared to suggest that abortion may not always be a wonderful experience. Actress Jennifer O'Neill came aboard to promote her "Silent No More" campaign and told how she regrets having an abortion and how pregnancy sites with which she's affiliated inform mothers of the physical and emotional risk of an abortion.

Her variance from the "pro-choice" line clearly appalled the regulars on the ABC daytime show, especially Joy Behar and former NBC News reporter Star Jones, though former CBS News reporter Meredith Vieira also revealed where she stands. (Barbara Walters was out, replaced by former Saturday Night Live cast member Ana Gasteyer who was also appalled that O'Neill's work might threaten Roe v Wade.) In the next segment, actress Katey Segal scolded the View team for being so "polite" to O'Neill.

Some of the comments and exchanges on the January 21 The View, as transcribed by MRC intern Rudy Peseckas:

-- Before O'Neill appeared, Behar was upset that a poll about abortion included the views of men:
Behar: "Just ask women because we're the ones who have to do it all, so I just think that it's our business, it's our problem and leave them out of it [audience applauds]....Look, if I had a set of scrotum then it would be my problem, right? If my scrotum was in trouble -- scroti [everyone's laughing, crosstalk]. Since I'm the one that's carrying the baby, I want to be the one to decide....I think it's a woman's issue and just be concerning women, and the Senate is comprised of majority of men, the Congress is men, and they're making decisions for women, and I don't like it."

-- O'Neill noted that "80 percent of women that go in and have the opportunity to have an ultrasound change their mind. They do want their babies. I was not told that, and a lot of women-"
Behar jumped in: "There seems to be a lot of shame around just having an abortion, though, which I think, I don't understand. It's a legal thing in this country, but a lot of women are embarrassed to say that they've had one. Maybe we should change that."

-- Jones lectured her: "But Jennifer, there is a difference between secrecy and privacy, and there are some women who say this is a matter of my business and my body and I need to make a choice that's right for me at this time."

-- O'Neill advised that if you "have a teenager and you think you are doing them a favor with an unwanted pregnancy to go and get an abortion you are sentencing them to 30 percent higher risk of cancer. That's a fact that you need to know before you make that choice."
Behar countered: "But it is also a fact that it's a higher risk to have a child, to give birth than it is to have an abortion."
O'Neill: "That's not true."
Behar: "That's what I read."

-- Vieira worried: "But prior to abortion becoming legal that's when things were really secret much more so than after it became legal, and very dangerous. So there is going to be abortion one way or the other."

-- O'Neill urged adoption: "Offer adoption as an option. One-third of our babies conceived in this country are aborted, now perhaps it's a little better now."
Behar complained: "I think that adopted children have issues of their own too and giving up a baby after its come to term is a very painful thing also. I know girls who gave up babies years ago in the '60s before Roe v Wade and they suffer to this day that they gave up their baby so theres that issue too."
O'Neill: "I just want them to have the option, look at all the different ways that you can go-"
Behar: "Well I'm afraid that your particular thing that you are going to thell them is going to influence them to roll back their abortion rights."

-- Jones proposed: "Suppose I am eighteen years old. I'm going to college. I was careless I made a mistake. My life is ahead of me and I have chosen that I want to terminate that pregnancy and I don't want to hear from you Miss O'Neill. In the first trimester, I make the decision in seven weeks. I don't want to hear the options. I've made an informed decision."
O'Neill zinged her: "How can you be informed if you haven't heard the options?"
Jones: "Because I am a smart women who is at eighteen, I have looked it up. This is what I want to say, if I'm that person what do you say to me?"

-- Ana Gasteyer inadvertently suggested most women are idiots: "The whole point of family planning is to give you options and alternatives. In fact the whole rollback is the fear that people don't know that they have the option of abortion."

-- In the next segment, actress Katey Segal, best-known as the mother in Fox's old Married....With Children, came aboard to plug her new ABC sit-com, 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. She scolded The View crew: "Well I thought you girls were extremely polite....I think she is not going to Washington to do much other than probably try and alter things. I mean I have a lot of opinions about that but do you really want to talk about that? It seems you covered that a lot, I'm definitely pro choice that's what I will say [audience applause] and I thought you girls...but you know I like that everybody has an opinion and I think you are extremely polite."

The Web site for The View: http://abc.abcnews.go.com/theview/main.html

The Internet Movie Database bio page for Segal: http://us.imdb.com/Name?Sagal,+Katey

Web site for 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter:
http://abc.abcnews.go.com/primetime/8simplerules/index.html

Jennifer O'Neill is best-known for her role in the 1972 movie, Summer of '42. For her IMDB bio: http://us.imdb.com/Name?O%27Neill,+Jennifer+(I)

Fun fact, she's in her ninth marriage: http://us.imdb.com/Bio?O%27Neill,%20Jennifer%20(I)

For an old picture of her, check out a poster for the Summer of '42 movie: http://us.imdb.com/Posters?0067803

Her abortion alternatives Web site: www.PregnancyCenters.org

The View boasts having women hosts "with different points of view," but on abortion they all have one view. -- Brent Baker