[Update, 17 June 2015, 2:40 pm Eastern: BBC Radio corrected their error in their lead-in for Dawn Eden's interview. See link below for interview, and begin at the 1:01:30 mark.]
In a Friday column, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank again misquoted a conservative, where he attacked pro-lifers for not being "on the right side of logic" for opposing abortion, but not supporting "contraceptives [which] would seriously reduce abortions." Milbank cited Americans United for Life's Charmaine Yoest, who supposedly stated, "'I haven't seen anything' to convince her that more contraceptive use reduces abortions. She [Yoest] pointed to Guttmacher's 2011 findings that between 2001 and 2008, a reduction in the proportion of pregnancies ending in abortion 'could represent increased difficulty in accessing abortion services.'"
On Saturday, Yoest blasted the journalist on Twitter: "I had the courtesy to talk to you. We can disagree. But you should at least reflect what I actually said accurately." She then Tweeted a picture of the e-mail response she had sent to Milbank. The pro-life leader did quote the 2011 Guttmacher document, but underlined that "the abortion decline is not...solely attributable to 'better' contraceptive use. Guttmacher's own data shows that more women are choosing life in the face of unintended pregnancies."
Mollie Hemingway documented the Washington Post writer's long record of distorting and exaggerating in a Monday item on The Federalist. Hemingway pointed to a June 2014 incident where Milbank completely mischaracterized the remarks of panelists at a Heritage Foundation event about the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. She also noted that journalist "made stuff up when covering a panel of women at the Heritage Foundation" earlier in 2014.
Hemingway then spotlighted Milbank's distortion of Yoest, and concluded, "I'm not sure if Milbank didn't understand Yoest's point or if he just realized his clumsy point-scoring was obliterated by its inclusion. Either way, why is the Washington Post enabling him?"
The Americans United for Life president is in good company with regard to media malpractice. On Sunday, BBC Radio's Audrey Carville aired her interview of conservative Catholic author Dawn Eden, who recently did a book tour in Europe promoting her new book, "The Thrill of the Chaste: Catholic Edition." She led into the prerecorded segment by falsely claiming that Eden is a "former rock journalist hoping to be a bishop." Like Yoest, the Catholic writer took to Twitter and denounced Carville: "[It was] an irresponsible & outrageous thing to say of a faithful Catholic."
Unlike Milbank, the BBC journalist admitted fault in a reply on Twitter: "apologies Dawn-the words 'consecrated by a bishop' should've been in there. Your interview got a great response. Tks [thanks] for doing it." However, Eden wasn't satisfied with the mere apology: "Just an apology? No offer to make things right?" As of Monday morning, Carville has yet to make a formal correction, or record a new lead-in to her interview.
