MediaWatch: May 1990
Table of Contents:
Pro-Choice Celebrated and Pro-Life Ignored
TWO MARCHES, TWO STANDARDS
Last year's pro-abortion rally by the National Organization for Women (NOW) captured the media's attention. ABC anchor Sam Donaldson began the April 9, 1989 World News Sunday by claiming: "Not since the height of the Vietnam War have so many people marched in Washington as did today in the name of legalized abortion. Organizers placed the number at 600,000. Police said 300,000, but whichever, it was a giant outpouring of sentiment by the pro-choice movement." Kathleen DeLaski reported: "They flooded the streets of Washington. Thousands marched and chanted ....This march is the cornerstone of a new offensive by the pro- choice forces....There was little sign of the opposition....The march and rally were bigger than even the organizers predicted."
But when pro-life forces rallied this April 28, ABC anchor Carole Simpson gave a completely different spin: "Anti-abortion forces staged a major demonstration today here in Washington to draw fresh attention to their cause and to try to recapture their momentum in the political struggle over abortion rights. Organizers claimed 700,000 people attended today's Rally for Life. Police say there was a much smaller crowd of 200,000." DeLaski reported that the organizers "called it the largest rally ever against abortion," but told viewers that "opponents of this movement say these people don't have any momentum, and that this rally is a desperate act....More politicians have found it safer to support the other side, abortion rights."
The Washington Post provided equally imbalanced coverage. The NOW rally dominated the front page, generating a dozen stories taking up 15 columns of space. The pro-life rally got two stories in the "Metro" section. Ombudsman Richard Harwood took the Post to task on May 6, charging the coverage "left a blot on the paper's professional reputation." Harwood noted the less-populated Earth Day rally attracted 77 columns of space, with 44 pictures and drawings.
Though reporters are "pigeonholed fairly" as "liberal Democrats," Harwood attributed the disparity to the biases "we carry around as members of a social class whose magnetic pole is the metropolitan East Coast." According to Harwood, Post Managing Editor Leonard Downie recalled "a pervasive awareness of [the NOW march] among editors and reporters here: people in the newsroom, many of our relatives, and many of our friends were geared up to participate. Like Earth Day 1990, it was an 'in' thing to do." Harwood revealed the pro-life rally was not even mentioned at Downie's weekend planning meeting. Said a Post weekend editor: "I didn't even know this was anything important."
