Obama’s Take out The Trash Day Networks help new administration side-step abortion controversy.

by Colleen Raezler, Culture and Media Institute

Former President George W. Bush reinstated a policy in 2001 that restricted foreign countries using American dollars for abortions. CBS political consultant Craig Crawford called the action “red meat to the Bible Belt conservatives.”

Just three days after taking office, President Barack Obama rescinded the Mexico City Policy, a policy set into place by Ronald Reagan that prohibited American funding for foreign abortions. Have the media called it red meat for liberals? No. They’ve mostly been silent.

Signing on the Sneak

Obama signed the executive order late on Jan. 23, the day after the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It was also Friday, a moment that TIME magazine’s Amy Sullivan called, “a time traditionally reserved for the release of information an administration would like to bury.” During the Clinton administration, Friday afternoon was the time for “document dumps,” when the scandal-ridden White House released embarrassing pieces of its paper trail.

Even Hollywood recognizes the timing for what it is – a calculated strategy to avoid tough press. Characters in the liberal political drama “The West Wing” refer to such days as “take out the trash day.” “The West Wing,” by the way, is a show whose ultimate fantasy -- a young, Democratic congressman from nowhere becoming president --fulfilled in Obama’s election.

Sullivan reported that Obama “wants to turn down the heat on an issue that has defined and divided American politics for more than three decades” and based on the media coverage of his decision, it seems to have worked.

CBS and NBC barely mentioned the change in policy during the Jan. 23, 2009 Evening News and Nightly News broadcasts. On the Saturday “Early Show,” CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier noted during a wrap-up of the president’s first few days in office that “Mr. Obama also quietly stepped into the abortion debate” with his executive order that overturned the ban on funding for foreign abortions.

Only ABC acknowledged the controversial nature of Obama’s decision, two days after the fact during World News Sunday. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi noted that the president hoped “not to provoke anti-abortion groups” with the order, and that “it didn’t work.” Alfonsi also featured Tony Perkins, president of the pro-life Family Research Council, who said that Obama “does not have consensus and support from, from the majority of Americans” on social issues.

No networks reported the fact that in a 55-page “wish list” sent to the Obama-Biden transition team by abortion rights groups, reinstating American funding for foreign abortions topped the list with regard to international matters.

Bush “Pleased” the Right

What a difference from eight years ago. Then, Crawford wasn’t the only person accusing Bush of playing politics.

Dan Rather, “CBS Evening News” anchor, introduced a Jan. 22, 2001 report on Bush’s reinstatement of the policy by calling it “something to quickly please the right flank in his party.” John Roberts, chief White House correspondent at CBS, noted “the president waded into controversy on this first day” and “in a nod to anti-abortion groups…announced he’ll cut federal funding to organizations that provide family planning and abortion counseling overseas.”

Roberts’ report also featured criticism by Gloria Feldt, then-president of Planned Parenthood, “The fundamental human and civil right to make our own child-bearing choices is at greater threat than it has been anytime in the 28 years since Roe vs. Wade was decided.” Feldt’s comment re-aired during CBS’ Jan. 23, 2001” The Early Show.” CBS failed to provide a pro-life counterpoint to Feldt.

ABC White House correspondent Terry Moran said Bush’s decision was “designed to appeal to anti-abortion conservatives” on the Jan. 22, 2001 “World News Tonight.”

Newsweek’s Howard Fineman told NBC’s Matt Lauer during the Jan. 23, 2001 “Today” that with the executive order stopping the flow of American money to foreign abortion providers, “George W. Bush following a plan. Secure the base. The Christian right is fundamental to the Republican Party and to his presidency.”

Later in the same broadcast, anchor Ann Curry ignored the pro-life support Bush enjoyed as a result of his executive order. She reported, “Abortion rights supporters are condemning the president’s order Monday, restoring a Reagan-era ban on U.S. funding of overseas family planning groups that advocate abortion.”

Explain and Inform

One thing remained constant in the network coverage from then until Obama’s overturning of the Mexico City Policy: no explanation of the policy aside from as ABC’s Chris Cuomo noted on the Jan. 23, 2009 Good Morning America, “the policy was put in place by Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton overturned, but it was reinstituted by George W. Bush.”

But the same day, Family Research Council’s Tom McClusky succinctly explained the policy and what it means now that Obama has rescinded it:

In as little words as possible, the Mexico City policy halts U.S. family planning funds from going to foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that perform abortions or "actively promote" abortion as a method of family planning in other countries… The effect of President Obama rescinding the Mexico City Policy is that now millions ($461 million in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008) of dollars are taken away from family planning groups that do not promote abortion, and delivered into the hands of organizations that are the most militant in promoting abortion as a population-control method - especially in countries that find abortion objectionable on moral grounds.

ABC may not have covered the story immediately or explained the policy, but the network did recognize that allowing organizations to spend American dollars on abortion is not accepted by all. CBS and NBC failed the American public by not explaining what the policy does and also by not holding Obama to the same scrutiny they held Bush to back in 2001.

Related stories:

Shhh. Obama Repeals the Abortion Gag Rule, Very Quietly
Obama Revokes Abortion Funding Policy, Will Fund Overseas Abortions with Taxpayer Money

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http://www.cultureandmediainstitute.org/
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Alexandria, VA. 22314

What about the parents of these children... don't they have a voice? rights?

On one of my previous posts someone commented on the parents of unborn children having rights. They then went on to talk about how we are fighting, soldiers are dying and we're killing, and so on and so on.

The anonymous comment ended with something about being fed up.

I find it hard to fathom how the rights of living, thinking, supposedly responsible adults is more important than that of an unborn child, or any child for that matter. I find it hard to understand the reasoning that says an adult has the right to kill an unborn child. With the line of reasoning that says the rights of the parent are more important than the life of an unborn child it's just one teeny, tiny step to killing a child that has popped out of the womb and is crying. Whoops, I forgot, Barack Obama supports doing just that if the mother was trying to have an abortion and the child managed to survive.

So have the baby already and give it to someone who wants it. How difficult is it to trade nine months for a life?

I know the following argument doesn't work in the case of incest and rape, but in the vast, vast majority of cases it does: Why not make sure you won't have children in the first place? Why should a child have to pay with its life just because you were too stupid to use birth control?

I used to sit on the fence when it came to the abortion issue. No longer. It's the most selfish of selfish acts. It says you are not responsible for your actions. It says you're willing to kill rather than suffer the inconvenience of having a child. It's a symbol of our current me, me, me lifestyle.

Much as I disagree with it, I can actually understand abortion much better in the days when birth control, aside from abstinence, didn't exist. Even in the days when birth control was hit or miss I could understand it a bit better. I'm not saying I condone it under any circumstances, but it's easier to understand a woman with ten children saying enough is enough 100 years ago than it is to understand today's woman who doesn't want stretch marks.

And speaking to the argument of soldiers fighting for our freedoms and killing other adults who are making the choice to fight back. Adults. Making their own choices. Big difference.

If you don't believe in soldiers killing then how can you condone killing unborn children? Makes not one bit of sense. One wrong in your mind shouldn't be used to justify another wrong.

I happen to believe we need to fight for what is good and right. If we don't fight for what is right, if we're not willing to lay down our lives to keep our freedoms, then we lose. If we hand over our freedom I guarantee there's going to be a whole lot more killing and suffering than we have now!

If I as an adult choose to fight and possibly lay down my life then it is a choice I make. If I choose to abort a child I am killing an innocent being who has no say in the matter.

I know this isn't going to get through the thick brain of anyone who isn't willing to accept responsibility for their actions. I know that the pro-choice aren't going to be convinced. They believe in their choice, not the child's choice. If you don't want to get pregnant then be an adult and do something about it. No excuses these days for an unwanted pregnancy aside from rape and incest.

Birth control. Tubal ligation. Sex change. Choose one if you don't want to get pregnant.

This is so horrible! We can not elect Barack Obama

How can any caring human being do this to another? How can any human being support this? I think everyone who supports this should be forced to hold a child as it dies. If they then support something this cruel, they are not human. If you don't want to take a chance on getting pregnant then there are a lot of things you can do to ensure that doesn't happen. Barack Obama does not deserve anyone's vote.