The Baltimore Sun is hardly a right-wing rag, in fact its editorials and its overall news judgment, as many a Marylander registered on this site can tell you, is rabidly left-wing. But even the Sun, reporting on yesterday's heinous, grisly discovery of four murdered stillborn infants in Ocean City, Md., used the term "baby" to describe the victims. The Associated Press also used the term "baby" to describe the pre-born or stillborn victims.
So what's holding Andrea Stone of USA Today back? The word "baby" appeared twice in her July 31 story, but only in quotes, from a police spokesman and the Worcester County State's Attorney. Likewise the term "infant" was only used once in Stone's story, again within quotes from a police report.
Also to the Sun's credit--although really it should be standard practice when the MSM report on abortion matters-- Sun reporter Lynn Anderson avoided the left-wing euphemism "woman's right to choose" in favor of a grammatically correct phrase that includes the word "abortion." In this excerpt, Anderson is describing the law under which suspect Christy Freeman may be prosecuted:
The legislature passed the law after it was amended to include language that abortion-rights advocates said would protect a woman's right to a medical abortion. Some say it is unclear whether the law protects women from prosecution for self-induced abortions.
In other words, Freeman and her lawyers could argue that, having the right to secure an abortion protects her from being penalized for terminating her pregnancy herself.
The bottom line: this grisly multiple murder story has the potential to capture the public's attention in a way that transcends to overarching social and legal issues.
Watching the language the media use to report the facts of the case should clue us in to how wedded some in the mainstream media are to left-wing euphemisms and phraseology regarding abortion and the unborn child.
