Media Downplayed Bill Clinton’s Outburst at Pro-Life Advocates Over Abortion

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 19, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Media Downplayed Bill Clinton’s Outburst at Pro-Life Advocates Over Abortion Email this article
Printer friendly page

RSS Newsfeed

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 19
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Former president Bill Clinton lashed out at pro-life advocates over the issue of abortion during an appearance in Ohio over the weekend. But the lack of news coverage of this outburst compared to other prior comments he’s made on the campaign trial prompts one observer to chastise the mainstream media.

As LifeNews.com reported, Clinton yelled at pro-life advocates and accused them of wanting to put women in jail who have had abortions.

Tim Graham, the director of media analysis for the Media Research Center noted the lack of coverage and said what little attention the outburst received downplayed Clinton’s anger.

"Bill Clinton’s yelling at pro-life protesters in Steubenville, Ohio didn’t get processed by the networks as a sign of bad temper, or of sour and hyperbolic attacks on pro-lifers," Graham said.

"On Monday’s Good Morning America, reporter Jake Tapper’s quick summary of what was going on with the top presidential candidates only noted he ‘took on some anti-abortion protesters,’" he said.

GMA only ran the soundbite with Clinton condemning pro-life advocates for supposedly wanting to "criminalize women and their doctors."

"That is clearly a sentiment that media liberals support, but it’s only a fraction of what he yelled," graham said.

"ABC’s Political Radar blog carried more detail, but in neither report did ABC seem to ponder the political oddity of Clinton’s angry retort," Graham explained.

He said the media should have examined Clinton’s claim that he is more pro-life than pro-life people given his vetoing of bills to ban partial-birth abortions and his paving the way for national sales of the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug that has killed several women.