NBC's Mitchell Describes Push for Free Birth Control as 'Contraception Rights'
On Wednesday's NBC Nightly News, as correspondent Andrea Mitchell filed a report recounting that President Obama is running ahead of Mitt Romney with female voters, Mitchell referred to liberal birth control activist Sandra Fluke's political activities as a push for "contraception rights" rather than more accurately relaying her desire to force health insurance to pay for birth control pills for women as if they could not choose to purchase such products on their own.
As she concluded the story, Mitchell included a dig at Rick Santorum as she asserted to viewers that members of the Romney campaign "blame Rick Santorum's positions on women's health in the primaries for the gender gap against Republicans," as if abortion deserves to be called a "women's health" issue.
The NBC correspondent also managed to find a female voter who supported Republican John McCain in 2008 who is now "leaning toward Obama," without including the opposite example of a woman planning to switch from Democrat to Republican, even though Obama's weak poll numbers should have made it just as possible to find such a voter to provide balance:
ANDREA MITCHELL: The target, undecided young women like Sloan Henry of Winter Springs, Florida, who voted for John McCain but is now leaning toward Obama.
SLOAN HENRY, UNDECIDED VOTER: I'm looking for a candidate that supports my views in my reproductive health.
Below is a complete transcript of the report from the Wednesday, August 8, NBC Nightly News:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Now, to presidential politics. President Obama campaigned in Colorado today, a state where a new poll shows him trailing Mitt Romney, but he's trying to make up some ground by hitting at what has been a Romney weak spot. And that's support among women. A report from NBC's Andrea Mitchell.
ANDREA MITCHELL: At a Denver rally today, the President was surrounded by his most reliable support group - women voters - and taking direct aim at Mitt Romney.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: They want to take us back to the policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century.
MITCHELL: Playing a starring role for the first time in the campaign, Sandra Fluke, the former law student who became a lightning rod after Rush Limbaugh denounced her for supporting contraception rights.
RUSH LIMBAUGH: So, Ms. Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal-
SANDRA FLUKE, FORMER GEORGETOWN LAW STUDENT: For me, it's been intensely personal.
MITCHELL: Women, especially single women, supported the President overwhelmingly in 2008. And in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, they favor him by 25 points, nearly three times the advantage he has with married women. But the economy has hit young single women harder than married women. The Obama campaign worries they may stay home this year, so he's flooding them with messages, TV ads, social media, celebrity appearances.
ANITA DUNN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: They are a critical group of voters that both campaigns see as a real battle ground far beyond any individual state.
MITCHELL: The target, undecided young women like Sloan Henry of Winter Springs, Florida, who voted for John McCain but is now leaning toward Obama.
SLOAN HENRY, UNDECIDED VOTER: I'm looking for a candidate that supports my views in my reproductive health.
MITCHELL: Mitt Romney, who campaigned in Iowa today, was targeting older, married women, where he is more competitive, today announcing the Women for Mitt Coalition, led by his wife, Ann.
ANN ROMNEY: What I hear women talking about, they're talking about jobs. They're talking about the economy.
MITCHELL: Romney advisors blame Rick Santorum's positions on women's health in the primaries for the gender gap against Republicans, a gap they are trying to overcome. Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington.
-- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center
