Katie Couric’s CBS Evening News on Friday omitted any mention of the murder of pro-life activist Jim Pouillon in Michigan, despite having discussed the murder of abortionist George Tiller on the June 1, June 2 and June 9 newscasts (and then referencing the killing as a recent “hate crime” in a June 10 report on the shooting at Washington, D.C.’s Holocaust Museum).
Both ABC’s World News and the NBC Nightly News, in contrast, offered full reports on the killing of Pouillon and a local businessman, but offered different explanations. According to NBC’s John Yang, prosecutors said the killer, Harlan Drake, had grudges against his victims and another intended target but “none of them were specifically related to anti- or pro-abortion beliefs.”
Over on ABC, however, reporter Chris Bury showed a soundbite from the Owosso police chief that sure sounded like a grudge against Pouillon’s protests: “Mr. Drake did not believe the children should view the graphic material that was on the signs that Mr. Pouillon carried.”
And ABC’s Bury claimed Friday’s killing of the peaceful protester represented “the flip side of the troubling violence surrounding the abortion debate,” and equated the pro-life activist with the doctor who performed late-term abortions: “George Tiller and Jim Pouillon, on opposite sides of the abortion divide, but both victims of the hate that too often surrounds it.”
Actually, if the amount of coverage they mete out is a reliable guide, liberal journalists seem to really think that the abortionist is more important than the activist arguing against abortion.
The transcript of the report on the September 11 World News with Charles Gibson:
CHARLES GIBSON: In other news today, an anti-abortion activist was shot and killed in Michigan. Police have arrested and charged a suspect. The victim was protesting outside a high school in Owosso, Michigan, when he was gunned down. He was a familiar and polarizing figure around town, and is now part of the national fury over the abortion debate. Here's ABC's Chris Bury.
CHRIS BURY: In his Michigan town, Jim Pouillon was known above all for displaying graphic pictures of aborted fetuses. Today, the anti-abortion activist was shot dead in front of the high school where he was protesting. Police say the captured suspect, Harlan Drake, also gunned down a businessman and planned to kill a third man.
OWOSSO POLICE CHIEF MICHAEL COMPEAU: Mr. Drake did not believe the children should view the graphic material that was on the signs that Mr. Pouillon carried.
BURY: Today in Washington, activists and religious leaders opposed to abortion rights asked the Justice Department to investigate.
PATRICK MAHONEY, CHRISTIAN DEFENSE COALITION: An American citizen has been gunned down on 9/11 for exercising their First Amendment speech, and the Attorney General and the White House have said nothing.
BURY: A Justice Department official told ABC News, quote, 'We are saddened by the tragic events and are monitoring the state investigation.'
BURY: Today's Michigan killing represents the flip side of the troubling violence surrounding the abortion debate. In June, Wichita doctor George Tiller, one of the few physicians who performed late-term abortions, was shot to death in his church. Anti-abortion leaders demanded federal investigators give today's killing equal treatment.
MAHONEY: Please make the same committment that you did when George Tiller was killed.
BURY: George Tiller and Jim Pouillon, on opposite sides of the abortion divide, but both victims of the hate that too often surrounds it. Chris Bury, ABC News, Chicago.
—Rich Noyes is Research Director at the Media Research Center.
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BIG difference
September 12, 2009 - 15:12 ET by Indiana Joe“George Tiller and Jim Pouillon, on opposite sides of the abortion divide, but both victims of the hate that too often surrounds it.”
Yeah, but Tiller was an active participant in the abortion process, the killing of unborn humans. Even if you don't consider abortion to be wrong, you have to admit he was a practitioner.
Pouillon merely had the audacity to protest that.
HUGE difference, not just a "flip side."
"Four legs good... two legs better!" - George Orwell
Yes..there WAS a big difference.
September 12, 2009 - 16:58 ET by superconOne man never killed anybody and the other man killed 60,000 babies.
" if Republicans are able to stop Barack Obama on health care, 'it will be his Waterloo, it will break him...." -Sen. Jim DeMint
"one of the few"
September 12, 2009 - 15:31 ET by mbuel"One of the few PHYSICIANS who performed late-term abortions"
Nice fact checking there ABC. Physicians don't perform abortions. It's a fundamental violation of the hippocratic oath.
Of course in other countries they make sure their doctors don't have to worry about that. If a child is born pre-mature in the UK, they just leave it on a table to die, as they don't yet consider it human.
That's the road you liberals are putting us down, I hope you realize you're opening the gates to hell.
http://clearthehaze.blogspot.com
How they report it
September 12, 2009 - 15:37 ET by KC MulvilleIt's not that they report, it's what they report. The media covered the Tiller murder to discredit the anti-abortion movement. This coverage will be to excuse and protect the pro-abortion side. They're already reporting it as "yet another" example of violence in the whole abortion debate, as if both sides are equally to blame. This will also be reported as a weird, odd incident that says nothing about the pro-abortion side.
How likely is it that pundits will call for the silencing of left-wing media? After all, they've been calling right-wingers "lunatics" and "racists." Isn't that the logic they used to suggest that right-wingers in the media were "responsible" for violence?
Let's hear them now. They're gutless cowards.
more important? ya think?
September 12, 2009 - 15:41 ET by katainkentI would like to know what the graphic was behind Charlie when the abortionist was killed.
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We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. ~Thomas Jefferson
(if you think healthcare is expensive now - wait until its free)
“George Tiller and Jim
September 12, 2009 - 16:06 ET by MidAmerica“George Tiller and Jim Pouillon, on opposite sides of the abortion divide, but both victims of the hate that too often surrounds it.”
No, the opposite of Jim Pouillon, who was carrying a sign protesting abortion, would be a supporter of abortion who was also carrying a sign. Tiller butchered babies for profit.
Here's the very sick irony.
September 12, 2009 - 17:20 ET by ekslibDrake murdered a human in front of students to make sure the students didn't see particular still images.
Let's poll Liberals ... to see if showing images is REALLY equivalent to murdering someone.
Never thought of that
September 12, 2009 - 23:29 ET by KC MulvilleGood catch!
"All the News That's Fit to
September 12, 2009 - 18:34 ET by RR GOP"All the News That's Fit to Ignore"...should be the MSM's motto.
What, no desire to sit down and have a "conversation" over this? Maybe get some psychologists on their with their Libtard theories, some hack journalist professors from Columbia...what gives?
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 86% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.