http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=1083146National Public Radio, financed in part by taxpayers, seems to be demonstrating bias in favor of abortion proponents -- so says Family Research Council's Ken Blackwell.
Blackwell contends NPR is so pro-abortion that staff members have been told to use only politically correct labels in identifying both sides of the debate. NPR's managing editor, David Sweeney, issued a memo to that effect, ordering that henceforth those who favor liberalized abortion are to be referred to as "abortion rights advocates" -- while pro-lifers are to be referred to as "abortion rights opponents."
Blackwell detects an obvious slant. "...[Sweeney] was trying to frame the issue so that those who heard it through NPR would not see it as a struggle to protect and promote a pro-life ethic, but to oppose the rights of women to abortion," he maintains.
The FRC senior fellow says that is an issue because, unlike Newsweek or The New York Times, NPR receives tax dollars. Consequently, it is something he feels is not only offensive but something pro-life advocates ought to speak out about.
Ken Blackwell"They [NPR] are going to try to frame this important national debate over the dignity of human life using the language of the pro-abortion advocates," he comments.
Blackwell believes NPR ought to be the "umpire" in the discussion and not an advocate or on one side or the other. But, he notes, the taxpayer-supported network has decided to choose sides -- and in this case is siding with those who would take innocent human life.
Writing about NPR's bias on the abortion issue, Blackwell notes that pro-lifers are perhaps the only group that is denied the right to be called what they call themselves. He suggests that is because "liberal scribes see the power in the pro-life designation" -- or perhaps because "they know that the truth can make people free."