Pro-Life Coalition Petitions “Big Three” Networks to #CoverTheMarch

The Alliance for Fair Coverage of Life Issues calls on ABC, CBS, and NBC to cover tomorrow’s March for Life. They claim that journalists are no longer watchdogs for the American public, but instead has become “lapdogs of a liberal agenda committed to the destruction of life.”

They claim that ABC, CBS and NBC have “promoted Planned Parenthood, encouraged attendance at the pro-abortion Women’s March, downplayed scandalous abortion videos, while, at the same time, paid little attention to the march and other pro-life events.”

The March for Life is the largest annual march in Washington that takes place on around the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. It is attracts tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of marchers every year.

Yet it gets practically ignored. “In the past four years, the networks have spent just 100 seconds – fewer than two minutes – on the March for Life in the morning and evening news shows directly following the rally,” they note.

Last year’s March should have been considered even more newsworthy based on the bad weather in Washington on the day of the March.

Last year, tens of thousands of people braved what The Washington Post said was “predicted to be a historic snow storm,” to attend the march. ABC’s Good Morning America made the only mention, following the March, reporting on a “group of high schoolers trying to get back to Kentucky after visiting D.C. for the March for Life.” That one mention amounted to 35 seconds. ABC also made a mention before march, which amounted to 13 seconds.

Last year’s coverage was not an isolated event.

• In 2015, only CBS mentioned the march, allotting just 15 seconds.
• In 2014, the networks devoted 46 seconds to the hundreds of thousands marching in Washington, D.C. Yet, ABC, NBC and CBS spent six times that on the National Zoo’s new panda cub and four-and-a-half times that on the Climate March.
• Since 2013, the networks have devoted just 100 seconds to the March for Life in following news shows – slightly more than they might have spent broadcasting a couple of burger ads.

Coalition members such as Alliance Defending Freedom, American Principles Project, Susan B. Anthony List, American Family Association, Media Research Council, Catholic League, ForAmerica, Family Research Council, Live Action, Priests for Life, Students for Life, and others.

The call on journalists to adopt the following guidelines as they report on this issue:

1. Report on life issues of public interest.
2. Report on the pro-life movement.
3. Include pro-life voices.
4. Refuse conflict-of-interest awards.
5. Don’t dismiss, investigate.

Reader and add their names to the petition here.