Fair and Balanced Coverage of the March For Life?

     Hey guys!  I know it's relatively soon for me to be putting out a new blog, but this is for a media project which I thought would be something y'all might want to read as well.

     As we all know, the annual March for Life in Washington D.C. will take place on January 22nd as it does every year.  One thing that we can safely assume will be constant is the media coverage on the event.  Most years, EWTN will be all over the place covering masses, interviewing participants (*cough* like me last year *cough* link here), and just going above and beyond to make sure the world knows about this huge event.

     On the other hand, you have the major media.  Several local stations pick it up every year, true. However, if I recall correctly (this was a few years back), even Fox News, which tends to be more on the conservative side of the ball, only briefly brought up the topic and then moved on.  Even when it does get a bit more than a mention on places like CNN, the people covering it seem to have an obvious bias opinion in favor of abortion which effects their coverage of the subject greatly.

     Obviously, this is wrong on its face, but how exactly would it be considered wrong from a journalist perspective?  Well, one thing that may be an argument brought up is that the media needs to be objective to both sides.  That is, to ensure that they strictly cover the news in its entirety and leave out any biased
opinions towards either side.  The problem is that if you were to argue this, you'd be diving into a debate which has already been hashed over for the past few years.  What is often pointed out is that to REALLY have a news presentation COMPLETELY devoid of ANY biased opinion is near to impossible.  Thus, the more adopted form has become "To be fair and balanced".  This means that even though you agree with one side, you present both sides fairly with an equal defense for both sides.  You also must be true to the facts of what both sides really are.  Now, does that mean it's game over, the media wins, and they get to do whatever they want?  Not so fast.  You see, even in the "fair and balanced" scheme, the major media has still failed to comply to the rules of good journalism.  For instance, a few months ago, my local "Fox" station did a segment on a pro-life protest in front of the State Senator's office. However, when the segment came up, they showed only five quick seconds of the person opposed to abortion, with the other 40 seconds as a pre-recorded tape from a Planned Parenthood Representative.  To make it worse, the station allowed Planned Parenthood to squeeze in lies regarding who they are and what they do without having another voice in opposition.  As we can see, the whole concept of "Fair and Balanced" has been totally abandoned here.  The unfortunate thing is that this isn't just my local station's problem.  Rather, this seems to be a constant occurrence among larger media outlets across the country.  Many journalists have been taking the best arguments for abortion (which even at best, aren't very special), and the weakest arguments for life, pinning them against each other, and saying,"Oh, well this one is obviously better, so our biased opinion is right!"  If you want to claim to be "Fair and Balanced", then you need to actually do it right.

     One might also compare the right way to do this to a well researched YouTube video (you had to see this coming).  A YouTuber decides that there is so much controversy regarding a certain biblical text, he is going to do a ton of research and find EVERY scripture passage he can regarding the subject, put it in context, and make a video on it.  Did the YouTuber have a biased opinion going in? Sure.  However, if he has all his facts straight and is presenting both arguments in their strength to the best of his abilities, is he not being "Fair and Balanced"?

     In short, you have an opinion, and it's okay if you are bias about it.  However, whether it be morally wrong, professionally wrong, or both, you MUST be TRULY "fair and balanced" and not just use it as an excuse show that you favor one side to the other by using your opponent's weakest argument.

Alright, thanks for reading guys, and please be sure to check out my Facebook page and YouTube channel.  Take care, get out there, and be amazing!

God bless,
TheCatholicApologist