As the new year began, The New York Times offered a 780-word article to a protest for illegal immigrants - with four marchers walking from Miami to Washington [1]. But on Saturday, tens of thousands of Americans gathering in Washington for Friday's annual March for Life received - part of a sentence. In the Saturday paper on January 23, an article on the trial facing the killer of late-term abortionist George Tiller on page A-11 featured this note in paragraph nine of a 12-paragraph dispatch by Monica Davey [2]:
Testimony began the same day that abortion rights groups celebrated, and abortion opponents protested, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal.
Times defenders could note that the paper's Caucus blog [3]offered a two-sentence preview on Friday:
37 Years: Just one day after the Supreme Court announced its latest landmark decision, abortion opponents will gather in Washington to mark the 37th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion. Among the events: a National March for Life rally.
By contrast, the Washington Post carried a calm story by William Wan [4]
on the March for Life with color photos of each side of the abortion
divide. (An online video on the Post website gave substantial time to
both sides, even though the pro-abortion contingent was vastly
outnumbered, as usual.)
The Los Angeles Times covered the Tiller trial in Wichita, but reporter Robin Abcarian [5] made no mention of the March for Life. Neither did anyone else at that paper.
- Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.