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MSNBC's Wagner Hypes 'Republican Assault on Women's Health,' Omits Four Female GOP Senators Voted for Blunt Amendment

By Ken Shepherd | March 02, 2012 | 19:14

A  A
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After airing a clip of a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ad featuring female Democratic candidates for key U.S. Senate races this November, MSNBC's Alex Wagner effusively praised the campaign ad as an excellent response to the "Republican assault on women's health." The ad "really isolates the guys in Congress who are voting for this" and the women that stand as bulwarks against this," Wagner gushed. Panelist Lynn Sweet, Washington bureau chief  for the Chicago Sun-Times agreed, adding, "The smartest line was said by Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator, when he said that if there were 83 women in the Senate, not 83 men, they wouldn't  even have a debate on birth control and contraception."

Yet at no point in the segment on the March 2 Now with Alex Wagner did the host or anyone else bring up the fact that of the 17 women members of the U.S. Senate, four of them, all Republicans, voted for the Blunt Amendment, which would allow private employers to opt out of insurance coverage for procedures or drugs that violate their religious or moral convictions, such as contraception.

Of those four female Republican senators who voted for the Blunt Amendment,  one was very conservative, (Sen. Ayotte), one moderately-conservative (Sen. Hutchison), and two were moderates (Sens. Murkowski and Collins), as judged by their lifetime American Conservative Union scores of 95, 89.53, 68.25, and 50.77 respectively.

Eighty percent of female Republican senators voted  for the Blunt Amendment, as did 5.6 percent of Democrats, three male Democratic senators -- Casey of Pennsylvania, Manchin of West Virginia, and Nelson of Nebraska. In other words, Republican female senators had more diversity of opinion on that issue than Democratic male senators.

Also of interest is the fact that MSNBC producers aired a clip of the ad which completely excised the network's starring role. Viewers saw only a clip of the ad from its 28-second mark, beginning with a narrator's voiceover over a screen capture of a New York Times editorial entitled "The War on Women."

But in the preceding 27 seconds, MSNBC and NBC clips were featured prominently amid sound bites from other media outlets. Heres's the relevant transcript for that portion[:

[Ad begins with "War on Women" emblazoned on screen]

ED SCHULTZ, MSNBC, on camera: Republicans "War on Women"

NBC's KELLY O'DONNELL voiceover over images of stock images of protest signs, protesters: Provoked outrage today.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC Nightly News anchor voiceover: Contraception

WILLIAMS on camera, "Birth Control Politics" the story tag on screen: Reproductive rights, birth control

WOLF BLITZER, CNN anchor: The uproar over contraception.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Welcome to the Culture Wars 2.0

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE PUNDIT on MSNBC, "War on Women's Health" the onscreen tag: It's partisan politics being played out on women's bodies.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN, voiceover over B-roll of male religious leaders at congressional hearing: The political debate that some are calling the war on women's health.

ANDREA MITCHELL, MSNBC, on camera, onscreen graphic reads "Gender Gap": So, today, the House Republicans held a hearing on the whole health care contraception issue. Congress members walked out of the hearing because there were no women witnesses.

UNIDENTIFIED CONGRESSWOMAN: Where are the women?
 

About the Author

Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters. Click here to follow Ken Shepherd on Twitter.
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Comments

Standard fare for the lamestream media

Submitted by JohnP in OK on Fri, 03/02/2012 - 8:45pm.

Never acknowledge any facts that contradict your narrative. Lie by omission. And of course, any time anyone dares to contradict the radical feminist point of view, immediately label it as an attack on all women, even though most women in this country don't see groups like NOW as representing them in any way.

Sigh. Once again, we see the proof of the fallacy of the "superiority of the self-selected elite." I really wish there was a way to vaccinate against stupidity.

Of course, the Democrats and their media shills would call any such vaccine "racist," since it would eliminate their base and render them powerless.

If you can't please everybody, piss 'em all off!
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It's What Liberals Do Best

Submitted by HardRightTurn on Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:39pm.

Manufacture the truth. They'll get theirs one day, sooner than later.

To more fully comprehend the Left, one must read “Leftism As Psychopathy” by John Ray, M.A., Ph.D. Caution, it might scare you a little bit.
http://jonjayray.tripod.com/psycho.html

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The Democrats and their mouthpieces

Submitted by David Kramer on Sat, 03/03/2012 - 1:30am.

are just fluking insane.

"Be an information soldier in an army of one; where no one can follow, only lead." David Kramer
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Womens health?

Submitted by ohio granny on Sat, 03/03/2012 - 9:09am.

I recently heard a statistic that one third of strokes in young women are the direct result of the women taking birth control pills. If this is correct exactly how does this increase the health of women for the taxpayers/employers to pay for birth control pills? Many of these women die and others have life long health issues.

I have not heard anyone of these democRat mouthpieces address this. Why do they want so many young women to have strokes? I guess the answer to my own question is it really is not about birth control but is only about CONTROL.

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granny, they don't care. They

Submitted by motherbelt on Sat, 03/03/2012 - 9:45am.

granny, they don't care. They claim that contraception aids in the fight against global warming, contraception reduces medical costs...

And you know, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.

Do you remember the cries of "Heartless!!" when someone DARED to suggest that smoking might save money in the long run, because smokers die sooner and thus save money that would be spent on caring for them in their old age?

How COULD they be so crass as to  suggest any possible advantage to smoking?????

I guess it depends on whose agenda is served by death.

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