The Pro Life Campaign (PLC) has said the reluctance of politicians and others to challenge media bias in recent years has done serious damage to public debate in Ireland. The PLC’s education officer, Dr Ruth Cullen made her remarks ahead of the public event on media bias which takes place outside the Dáil next Wednesday evening, March 11.
“At one level, I sympathise with politicians over their reluctance to call the media out. Some of them fear falling out of favour with journalists and don’t want to be pilloried for taking a stand,” Dr Cullen said.
“But what’s going on at present cannot go unchallenged. On sensitive social issues like abortion, the public are only hearing one side of the story. Whenever you turn on the radio or TV and the issue of abortion is being discussed it’s so easy to predict what’s coming next. The debates are invariably framed in a way that promotes wider and wider access to abortion. The bias has now reached a farcical point.”
A survey by the PLC found that over a fortnight recently 33 pro-choice articles appeared in national newspapers, but only one pro-life article was published during the same period.
“It’s not just the newspapers, the radio and TV are just as bad,” said Cora Sherlock, the PLC’s Deputy Chairperson. “In RTÉ, programmes like Prime Time and Claire Byrne Live recently discussed the Clare Daly abortion Bill with panels consisting entirely of pro-abortion advocates. An RTÉ Sunday morning radio programme recently spent 20 minutes without interruption attacking the 8th Amendment, which provides the only remaining legal protection to the unborn. Again, there was not even one pro-life voice on the panel. And the presenter of an RTÉ afternoon show featured stories about abortion on five separate occasions during the first fortnight of February, all from a stridently pro-choice perspective.
“These examples represent only a fraction of the recent bias.”
A PLC video promoting the March 11 event, which has received over 2,000 hits on YouTube, states that the Savita case was “shamefully exploited by the media”.
Mismanagement
Young people in the video said that the media “knew from the outset that this tragedy was to do with mismanagement of sepsis not abortion”.
“Did you know that about the same time another woman from Ireland died in a Marie Stopes clinic after an abortion? Did you ever hear about that case? Did anyone hear about that case? The media buried that story without a trace.”
The PLC is holding the 33-1: Stand Against Media Bias event outside the Dáil next Wednesday from 7-8pm, because they say that is when TDs and journalists are in the Dáil.
Dr Cullen said it will be a “unique event”. “It will be the first time ever that a spotlight is being shone on the media in this way. A lot of people are asking how come it’s taken this long to hold something like this. I agree with that, it is long overdue. I really hope people will make the effort to be there.
“It’s pointless complaining about media bias and then doing nothing positive and proactive to challenge it,” she said.
“I am aware of women who went to England to abort their unborn babies and were devastated to find out when they returned home that there was such a thing as perinatal hospice care available in Ireland. What a tragedy.
“This is just one consequence of the media’s relentless focus on abortion and the failure to inform people about alternatives. If there is a big turnout next Wednesday, I think it will be the start of something very positive indeed,” Dr Cullen said.