Colorado Newspaper Editor Defends Support of Planned Parenthood Federal Funding As 'Common Sense'
Many liberals in the media honestly believe their views are middle-of-the-road or just plain common sense, not skewed to the left.
An interesting e-mail exchange I had with a Colorado newspaper editor earlier today illustrates that fact.
It all began with an email story tip from NewsBusters fan Shawn Loy, who sent along some correpondence he had had with Alex Miller, the editor of the Summit Daily News of Frisco, Colorado.
Loy had passed along to Miller an op-ed from Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) about ending federal funding of Planned Parenthood.
"I thought you might be interested....(includes quotes from former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson," Loy noted before pasting Pence's op-ed.
In reply, Miller wrote back to Loy:
Wow, what a bunch of BS! What you folks really need to do is focus on birth
control and better adoption policies and agencies in the US ...
Looking into this, I e-mailed Miller:
I received the following earlier from a NewsBusters tipster.
Care to comment about your response?
Miller quickly obliged:
Just that I think targeting abortion rights is an uphill and ultimately fruitless battle (even if it’s outlawed, which is highly unlikely, many will still seek abortions either out of the country or in a back alley) and that a much better use of time would be promoting birth control and giving women with unwanted pregnancies an easier path to offer children up for adoption. Not liberal bias, just common sense.
To which I kindly replied:
But can you see how a reader might take such a dismissive remark as evidence that you may be closed off to a full airing of all kinds of opinion on the Planned Parenthood funding debate? It may suggest to him that you are less inclined to run opinion pieces in your paper that carry a conservative view on removing federal funding of Planned Parenthood.
Miller's response?:
Perhaps, although mostly we focus on local opinion, not national e-blasts like that one — and we run plenty of opinion from both sides of the aisle. I generally never respond to them but was moved by what I thought was a ridiculous statement about ‘the abortion industry.’
- Ken Shepherd's blog
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Comments
well...
Submitted by michiganruth on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 6:31pm.
you know, I have to say I see Miller's point of view, even though he was a little rude in stating it. abortion is a loser issue, a wedge issue. and I do not believe that you can put the abortion genie back in the bottle; do you seriously think that suddenly in 2011, after years of reproductive freedom, women are going to go back to abortion being illegal?
please note I am not talking about FEDERALLY FUNDED ABORTION. I am firmly against that. but making it illegal? that's not going to happen.
look: we must defeat Obama in 2012. we MUST defeat him. I truly do not believe this country can stand four years of a lame duck Obama, free to implement the leftiest of the left agenda. we should concentrate on the issues that unite us, or we will be stuck with him for another term. I shudder to think what America (and Israel) will look like by then.
Where?
Submitted by Jerry Mack on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 9:42pm.
Where in the article is there anything about making abortion illegal? The Editor seemed to believe that stopping federal funding meant making abortion illegal. Tells me what his mindset is.
→ You miss the point, Jerry
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 9:50pm.
Liberalism cannot be satisfied unless they implicate all Americans in their religious sacrifice.
What they really believe in is not collective salvation but collective damnation.
So why not come to our side?
Submitted by WingletDriver on Thu, 04/07/2011 - 7:11am.
If you and Mitch Daniels believe that beating Obama is key to stopping his socialist agenda, why do you call on pro-lifers to compromise? I got an idea, tell the "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" crowd to compromise. Trust me on this one, the pro-life side feels it has heard this all before. We feel that for all of our compromise we've been repaid with a more anti-life republican party.
editor made the right call
Submitted by ladeflippinda on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 6:38pm.
I am a small-town newspaper editor and I get e-mail blasts from both sides and libertarians. I get some of the most outlandish comments from the right.
Sorry, but the Mount Pilate NewsBee is not exactly on the A-list
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 6:50pm.
You want to receive some whacko emails, go sign up at HuffPo.
You won't be disappointed.
For morally bankrupt
Submitted by Slyrr on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 6:39pm.
For morally bankrupt fornicators, of course taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood makes common sense.
How else are they going to pay for all the abortions that they're going to need after all of their out of wedlock sex? I mean - libutards can't possibly expect the men and women out there to take responsibility for their actions, can they? Of course it makes NO sense to actually raise the kids they create with their fornicating.
And God forbid anyone should tell the men/women/teens out there to NOT have sex until after they're married. Why, that doesn't make 'sense' at all.
Let's not outlaw abortions
Submitted by Zepppo on Thu, 04/07/2011 - 8:31am.
I always love that argument for abortions and drug use: Making it legal does not make sense because people will do it anyway in back alleys. Well people are committing murder in back alleys because it is illegal. Should we make that legal? How about muggings? I could go on but I have probably offended people already.