More children are killed every day by abortion than all of the people lost in the September 11, 200l, attacks on the World Trade Center. But when have you ever heard the mass media admit this? The major broadcast networks, the major dailies like The New York Times, have imposed a virtual news blackout on the subject.
Tell the Truth
If you think I exaggerate, ask yourself when is the last time that you saw a television show, or even a news segment, on the unborn child and its humanity. Have you ever seen a sympathetic portrayal of a pro-life organization? Have you even heard Peter Jennings or any of the other nightly news anchors report on the harm to women caused by abortion, such as forced abortions in China or the abortion-breast cancer link?
As it happens, I saw Peter Jennings a couple of weeks ago going into the NBC News offices in New York City. “When are you going to start telling the truth about abortion?” I asked him.
He pumped his fist in the air and shouted back, “Never!” It was a rare honest answer from a media giant who generally pretends that abortion doesn’t exist, only something called “a woman’s right to choose.”
Media’s Corrosive Effects
No less a figure than Pope John Paul II has remarked on the corrosive effect of this media reporting. In The Gospel of Life, the Pope writes that “The moral conscience, both individual and social, is today subjected, also as a result of the penetrating influence of the media, to an extremely serious and mortal danger: that of confusion between good and evil precisely in relation to the fundamental right to life.” [italics added.]1
Mass Media Influence
The mass media has enormous influence on our culture, and we need to be equally serious in rejecting their abuse of the truth where life and women arc concerned. What can we do? Here are a few responses.
(1) Know thy enemy: Try to better understand how the media manipulates public thought, and avoid being taken in by sympathetic portrayals of moral evils.
(2) Pay attention to semantics: Remind yourself that they misuse the word “right” when they apply it to abortion. No one has a “right” to take another person’s life.
(3) Change the channel: Don’t watch shows that promote “choice.” Spend your hard-earned money on subscriptions to publications which value life, not undermine it.
(4) Complain to advertisers: The media makes its living by advertising, and advertisers are upset by talk of boycotts. An army of boycotters would speak a language that both the media corporations and their advertisers would understand. Money talks.
(5) Spend less time with the media and more time in wholesome activities. Start a hobby, enjoy the outdoors, spend more time with your children and grandchildren. Break the media habit.
(6) Most importantly, take time to pray. Let us humble ourselves before God and ask Him to change their hearts, and deliver them from their anti-life agenda. Finally, stay strong in the fight for life. Sacrifice and hard work are necessary if we are to restore a culture of life.
Ron Galloy is the director of Life: God’s Sacred Gift, an organization that gives a pro-life witness directly to the mass media in New York City. They are located at 279 East 236th Street, Bronx, New York 10470
Endnotes
1 Pope John Paul II, The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae), para. 24.
