ABC Promotes Pregnant 'Man' Four Times in Two and a Half Months

Photo of Scott Whitlock.
  • Bookmark and Share

On Monday's "Good Morning America," for the fourth time in just two and a half months, the ABC program featured a segment on the so-called pregnant man, Thomas Beatie. Since first reporting the story on March 26, GMA has been fascinated with the case of the woman who had surgery to become a man, but kept her reproductive organs and is now having a child.

On Monday's show, reporter Ryan Owens fretted, "But how will society treat this less than conventional family?" The journalist offered liberal, non-judgmental platitudes such as "Today, Thomas says, different is normal." Spouting more sayings from Beatie, Owens recited, "Love makes a family, he says, and that's all that matters." On April 4, correspondent Andrea Canning lauded the transgendered woman as "the man the world has been waiting to meet." On March 26, GMA news anchor Chris Cuomo, cooed, "Oddity aside, biology aside, it is all about love of this child and as long as that's present, everything else is really going to be normal." Each story avoided what many would consider to be a salient fact: Despite media hype, men do not, in fact, give birth to children.

Even co-host Diane Sawyer seemed to be having trouble with the story. On Monday, she announced, "Beatie, the transgendered woman who became a man and she will -- he will give birth next month."

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

My NewsBusters colleague Ken Shepherd noted that ABCNews.com is also heavily promoting the story. Also, for more on the subject, see the Culture and Media Institute.

A transcript of the June 9, 2008 segment, which aired at 7:31am, follows:

DIANE SAWYER: But first, the candid new photos of Thomas Beatie, the transgendered woman who became a man and she will -- he will give birth next month. The extraordinary images have rocketed around the world and Ryan Owens has the new ones and the details. Ryan?

ABC GRAPHIC: New Pictures of Pregnant Man: "I Feel Fantastic"

RYAN OWENS: Indeed, I do. Good morning, Diane. Anyone still having a tough time wrapping their mind around the idea of a pregnant man, well, the proof is certainly in these photos. The 34-year-old man, born a woman, is due to give birth to a little girl in less than a month now. The stunning new photos show Thomas Beatie and his wife just four weeks before he's due to give birth. Thomas is a transgender male who kept his female reproductive organs so he'd be able to conceive and then did it through artificial insemination.

[Clip from "Oprah Winfrey Show."]

THOMAS BEATIE: I feel it's not a male or a female desire to want to have a child. It's a human desire.

OPRAH WINFREY: Okay.

BEATIE: And I'm a person and I have the right to have my own biological child.

OWENS: His wife Nancy actually performed the procedure at home with a syringe. They admit their situation is out of the ordinary but insist their daughter will be raised by parents in their traditional roles.

NANCY: He's going to be the father and I'm going to be the mother.

HELEN FISHER, PHD (Biological anthropologist): What's really astonishing about this particular pair is that they actually behave like a man and a woman in a very traditional marriage and will probably bring those roles to the family and the little girl will grow up like all little girls grow up with a daddy and a mommy.

OWENS: The Oregon couple took Oprah along on an emotional doctor's appointment when he was six months pregnant.

BEATIE: Now that we know the pregnancy is healthy, these are tears of joy.

OWENS: But how will society treat this less than conventional family?

FISHER: It's not really your history, but how you behave and who you think you are and what you bring to a relationship.

OWENS: Today, Thomas says, different is normal. Love makes a family, he says, and that's all that matters. But money certainly helps and any parent out there knows how expensive it can be to have a child. This couple has not been shy, we should point out, about selling their story and their pictures every step of the way. Also, this morning, the couple has revealed for the very first time, Diane, they do want more children so we expect to see pregnant man part two.

SAWYER: And it's not clear which hormones have been adjusted in way ways but you said he's still shaving?

OWENS: He is. There's a photo, we chose not to show it here, of him shaving his face while pregnant, so --

SAWYER: Okay. Thanks to you, Ryan.

—Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center.


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

This is for ratings. Plain

This is for ratings. Plain and simple.

Who do they keep calling her a man?

If I start dressing up as a black man, woudl the media refer to me as black? Of course not! This is crazy! I feel like everyone in this country is going nuts.

 

ABC, that is a female. I hate to be the one to inform you of this, but men cannot have babies.

Why do they keep calling her a man?

Because they want us to think a "real" man is having a baby. We all know that's a lie. This is a woman who decided to be a man. She is having a baby and looks like a man, and that's all it is. The media and libs are trying to force this transgender crap down our throats just like the homosexual agenda, gay marriage,etc. This is not a miracle of the ages, its a fraud and the media is propagating it for all its worth just for ratings and cash. Disgusting!!!!

NOT A MAN

Let me scream it from the mountain tops and maybe they will hear in New York (@ ABC), this person is NOT A MAN.

"HELEN FISHER, PHD

"HELEN FISHER, PHD (Biological anthropologist): What's really astonishing about this particular pair is that they actually behave like a man and a woman in a very traditional marriage and will probably bring those roles to the family and the little girl will grow up like all little girls grow up with a daddy and a mommy."

Yes, except for the fact that "mommy" is really a man who is very confused and has decided to try a lifelong experiment on his daughter.  Nice thing to do to your kid.

'Cuz I'm sure that everyone will be real nice to her, especially all the other kids.  We all know how nice kids can be.

one word for this

ABHORRENT

Has the doctor that perform the invitro

lost his license to practice yet?  Or did some whacko group give him a medal?  Or both?

Pregnant "Man"? 4 times.

This graph? 0 times.

What's more important to the future? I reported, you decide.
JMR

The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.

mainstreaming the fringe

This isn't about ratings or a slow news day. This is the Left doing what they do-- mainstreaming the fringe.

What morons!!

Do they really think were that dumb??  For gods sake this is nothing more than a surgically altered women, on male hormones.  First pregnant "man".....blah, blah, blah, yak ,yak ,yak.......sorry excuse for "news". 

"If a man does his best, what else is there"?

General George S. Patton Jr.

I am totally disgusted by

I am totally disgusted by all of this...I saw her picture on Drudge yesterday, had to look away, I wished to goodness the msm would quit showing the ugly picture, talk about a deformed looking woman...

The msm thinks this is one they can keep repeating ad nauseam with this a man BS....not going to work...idiot dolts is all they are.

She should be ashamed more than anybody. 

"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Wilson

Oprah to be the godfather

They chose not to show the photo of him shaving? Didn't fit ABC's take on this sickass story?

I guess the photos of Beatie mowing the lawn with a half-naked, hideously distended gut was deemed Pulitzer material...

From a medical perspective,

From a medical perspective, I wonder how the male hormones are going to affect the baby?

"HELEN FISHER, PHD (Biological anthropologist): What's really
astonishing about this particular pair is that they actually behave
like a man and a woman in a very traditional marriage"

Yeah, except for the "dad is having a baby", it's totally normal and traditional, lol. Why didn't they just let the mommy figure have the baby like mommies do?

No, no chance this kid will be scarred and disfunctional at all.

If the news were doing its job, they would stop referring to this woman as a man. Just because I dress my dog in a suit and teach him to walk on 2 legs doesn't make him a person. 

she is not a man,she is a freak seeking publicity

ok i am still pissing card carrying republicans off with the fact i defend gay people on the right to persue happiness to live their lives the way they want in this country without persecution, but on this one i am completely pissed off. she is not a man. if she were a man she would not have a uterus, she would have a penis, this is a media pushed lie on the same scale as global warming. i don't care if she wants to dress up like a man, live like a man, or whatever, but she's not a man, she is an asshole who can't get her life straight and wants to pretend she is normal. sorry she is not normal or a man. she's is a freak seeking publicity.

lunaticcringeradio

Is the Bat Boy from

Is the Bat Boy from the Amazon the father of this child? Or is it Bigfoot? Possibly the aliens that abducted Elvis (since we all know he's not really dead)?

ABC's credibility joins that of the Weekly World News with this nonsense, although I am reminded of Tommy Lee Jones telling Will Smith about the "hot sheets" in Men in Black. "Best reporting out there!"

The Set Up...

This is all part of the plan, get as much air time as possible since you'll be needing to raise funds to support the childs many years of counseling to come.....

"You're either part of the solution or part of the problem"

It's a WOMAN that wants to be a man but kept her womb

I am so dang sick of this, it's a freaking WOMAN guys and gals!!!

Okay, she took a lot of male hormones to get that mustache, there were girls
in HS that had them too, but they either bleached or waxed them off.

Check a DNA sample from this pathetic creature, there is no Y, no matter how
much of her primary and secondary sexual organs are cut or camouflaged.

Have someone from the 4th month of gestation, and born with "XY"
get pregnant WITHOUT surgical intervention, then that's news.

Otherwise - it's just a woman in "cross-dressing" pretending; and
women do get pregnant. So what's the news????

Just another BS story from

Just another BS story from the infamous network that rigged a truck to catch on fire when broadsided, just to make ratings.   Diane Sawyer is such a douche bag, who is still trying to get along on her looks, that have long since departed her.  Just another Bawba Wawa wantabe.

By the way, I'm sure there are plenty of guys who have wakened up after a hard night of drinking, with other women that look as bad as this bitch.  Pretending to be a male is a sorry way to get on with your life if your that ugly.  Other self respecting lezbos cope with their identity in a slightly more dignified manner.  They call themselves dykes.