On the "Grapevine" section of Friday night's Special Report, Fox News anchor Bret Baier reported the MRC's findings on how the networks covered this year's "March for Life" -- or, to be more precise, how they skipped it. Once again, ABC, CBS, and NBC aired nothing on the thousands and thousands of pro-life protesters marching to the Supreme Court on the 39th anniversary of the high court legalizing abortion.
"If you were listening to the Big Three broadcast networks, you wouldn’t have heard a peep about the event," said Baier. "You would have been in the dark, too, if you were reading the print version of The New York Times. Not one word." Fox asked me for a quote which then appeared on screen: (Video below)
They can't seem to locate tens of thousands of people clogging the streets of Washington to protest abortion on demand. These tens of thousands bravely keep coming to the capital in all kinds of bad weather every January, fully aware that the supposedly objective national media will pretend they don't exist.
This is quite a contrast to how ABC, CBS, and NBC offered a staggering 81 news stories in October to left-wing Occupy Wall Street activists. In fact, the Occupy protests are still getting mentions, even in the weekend leading up the Monday protest. There was Saturday’s Good Morning America on ABC:
RON CLAIBORNE, anchor: And Occupy San Francisco protests turned violent last night. Windows were smashed at a car dealership. And a group of protesters took over an abandoned hotel. At least 18 people arrested on a day that started with peaceful protests and people chaining themselves to bank buildings.
NBC offered this story on Friday’s Today before the Monday march:
NATALIE MORALES, anchor: Protesters say they will occupy the areas around federal courthouses in more than 100 cities today. They're marking the second anniversary of a ruling that removed most limits on spending by corporations and unions in federal elections.
On NBC's Saturday Today, we did get this abortion mention from reporter Michael Isikoff, digging up unfavorable information on Rick Santorum’s wife: "But the very next day, Karen Santorum was facing scrutiny herself. Newsweek reported that before she married Santorum, she had a six-year live-in relationship with a Pittsburgh abortion doctor 40 years her senior."
On Monday, Fox's "Special Report" sent Shannon Bream to provide a more-than-two-minute report on the March, complete with quotes from House Speaker John Boehner on one side and NARAL Pro-Choice America chief Nancy Keenan on the other.
USA Today and the Los Angeles Times joined the New York Times in failing to report on the March.
