For Mothers' Day, The Washington Post did the same thing it does most days: promote liberal causes. At the top of the Metro section is an article headlined "Pushing the Motherhood Cause: Group Works to Give Busy Women A Voice on Family Issues." It was also promoted on the front of Sunday's paper under the headline "Activist Mothers Unite." But a reader would have to go inside the Metro section to paragraph 11 to see the liberal cause revealed in the group, called MomsRising: "Co-founder Joan Blades also helped launch the liberal group MoveOn.org -- 'the great success story of Internet politics,' said Michael Cornfield, who wrote a book on the topic."
Reporter Donna St. George's story was surrounded with attractive color photos of mothers interacting with their toddlers, and began with the typical emphasis on the supposed nonpartisan activism that's all the rage:
They are moms with office jobs, moms with toddlers, moms with weekends that hustle them to birthday parties and scout meetings and supermarkets. No one has much free time, yet on this Saturday morning, they gather at Kim Love's home in Silver Spring to consider a political movement.
They settle into living-room couches and chairs as Love serves brunch and turns on "The Motherhood Manifesto," a documentary she promises will not take long. "I'm sure we all have soccer practice to get to," she says.
The "manifesto" is a feminist film that argues that women (including mothers) are short-changed in a sexist labor market (which is quite naturally airing tonight on 30 PBS stations on Sunday night, the Post reports.) St. George does allow two paragraphs from the conservative Independent Women's Forum in rebuttal:
MomsRising says it is nonpartisan, but more conservative women's groups say they are not likely to embrace its platform. "We have a fundamental disagreement on what the role of government is," said Michelle Bernard, president of the Independent Women's Forum.
Bernard also takes issue with the statistics MomsRising cites. In considering the wage gap, for example, she said, "it's not as large as they say it is, and it is not uniformly because of discrimination. It has a lot to do with the career choices."
The MomsRising website is quite clear about its liberal goals, including universal health care and "paid family leave for all parents," and its coalition of partners looks like the left in a nutshell, with everyone from MoveOn to NOW to Families USA to the "Network of Spiritual Progressives."
Late in the article, St. George relayed that the group's "Manifesto" film was first shown on Capitol Hill in the fall "in an event that brought in Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Edward M. Kennedy, and Christopher J. Dodd."
The only surprise is that the Post didn't splash its "nonpartisan" agenda across its pages back then.
