The Friday evening and Saturday morning shows for ABC, NBC, and CBS all ignored Friday’s 51st annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. where thousands turned out in the cold and the snow to protest the killing of the unborn. Friday’s NBC Nightly News was the worst offender because not only did they ignore pro-lifers, they actively promoted pro-abortion high schoolers.
Host Lester Holt introduced the report, “Right now, millions of high school seniors are grappling with one of the biggest decisions of their lives, where to go to college. And as Savannah Sellers reports, there's one factor that’s taking on a growing role.”
Sellers began the segment by introducing a family who requested their last name be withheld, “School ranking, academics, tuition costs, all factors in the big decision of picking a college but for South Carolina high school senior Grace, add the state's abortion laws.”
Grace declared that she is “not comfortable being in a state that doesn't value who I am or value my rights as a person.”
Turning to Grace’s mother Andrea, Sellers asked if that surprised her, to which she replied, “It did. I'm like, the weather, you know, what kind of campus, sports, what are the dorms like? You're not looking at lists of which campuses are in states that are more female friendly when it comes to reproductive rights.”
Sellers then hyped that Grace is not alone, “The family asked us not to use their last name concerned this story could impact Grace's admissions chances, but they join a growing trend, a Gallup survey shows 73 percent of young adults say reproductive health laws are a factor in their decision on where to enroll in college and a quarter of students ruled out institutions solely due to the political policies in a state.”
The following morning on Today, NBC once again could not find the March for Life, but they did find 49 seconds to devote to Green Day’s new album.
Friday’s World News Tonight on ABC found time to promote more Biden student loan forgiveness schemes while Saturday’s Good Morning America ignored college football winning championship coach Jim Harbaugh’s March for Life appearance, instead devoting 58 seconds to the University of Minnesota’s national championship winning dance team. The second hour of GMA featured 33 seconds on National Use Your Gift Card Day immediately after also hyping Biden’s student loan moves.
CBS Evening News found two minutes and 37 seconds for an interview with the teacher who organized a mock field trip to Mexico while CBS Saturday Morning spent nine minutes and 42 seconds on two segments during a profile and interview of Robert Smigel, the voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, who also roasted the show’s anchors in character.
Recaps of network coverage of previous editions of the March for Life can be found here and here.
Here is a transcript for the January 19 edition of NBC Nightly News:
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt
1/19/2024
6:50 PM ET
LESTER HOLT: Right now, millions of high school seniors are grappling with one of the biggest decisions of their lives, where to go to college. And as Savannah Sellers reports, there's one factor that’s taking on a growing role.
SAVANNAH SELLERS: School ranking, academics, tuition costs, all factors in the big decision of picking a college but for South Carolina high school senior Grace, add the state's abortion laws.
GRACE: I'm not comfortable being in a state that doesn't value who I am or value my rights as a person.
SELLERS: Did that surprise you at all? When your daughter brought that up.
ANDREA: It did. I'm like, the weather, you know, what kind of campus, sports, what are the dorms like? You're not looking at lists of which campuses are in states that are more female friendly when it comes to reproductive rights.
SELLERS: The family asked us not to use their last name concerned this story could impact Grace's admissions chances, but they join a growing trend, a Gallup survey shows 73 percent of young adults say reproductive health laws are a factor in their decision on where to enroll in college and a quarter of students ruled out institutions solely due to the political policies in a state.
ANDREA: I thought, this child has no concept of money.
SELLERS: Grace has offers for scholarships in conservative-leaning states.
What was your thought when you did get that scholarship into Alabama?
GRACE: I was happy about it, but it kind of made me a little bit anxious. I tried to like -- I started looking into the politics in Alabama a little bit more.
ANDREA: We argued about it quite a bit. Her dad's response was “Roll Tide” and so I'm like, “Roll Tide,” Grace.
