Chattanooga Times Free Press

APOCALYPSE NOT

- Erick Erickson

The American media tends to consist of highly educated individual­s. They tend to congregate in large urban environmen­ts surrounded by like-minded people who have similar interests and worldviews.

Good reporters tend to be mindful of their biases. Many reporters do not. In ways large and small, from what the media chooses to cover, chooses not to cover and chooses to use as narrative constructs for stories, the secular, urban worldview is pervasive. Much of America is more foreign to them than European cities. Too many political reporters only venture out into the heartland of flyover country during presidenti­al campaign season.

Nowhere is bias in the media more prevalent than in coverage of abortion. The entire abortion discussion on television is designed to advocate for abortion. I know this firsthand. Over several years at CNN, whenever the issue arose, I was asked to be the man who would confront the pro-abortion rights anchor and the pro-abortion rights, expressly female guest opposite me. When I could, I would decline and suggest a long list of female anti-abortion advocates in Washington, D.C., who were readily available. Rarely were they asked. Almost to a network, television producers and anchors want the optics of a man advocating against abortion being challenged by a woman who can talk about her body and her choice. One would think female advocates against abortion did not exist despite virtually every anti-abortion organizati­on in Washington being helmed by a woman.

Conservati­ve talk radio is actually not much better. I have been in conservati­ve talk radio for a decade. I regularly talk about my faith, social conservati­sm, socially conservati­ve policies and the anti-abortion cause. In Atlanta, I was the No. 1 radio show across formats, music and talk. In six months of nationally syndicated radio, I have already charted as the 26th most listened to host nationwide. One might think I know something about radio. But corporate owners of radio networks have more than once insisted I not discuss religion, faith or socially conservati­ve issues. They too prefer an “us versus them” coverage of daily politics. I politely ignore them.

The bias is so pervasive, you have undoubtedl­y heard Texas has, in the words of one CNN news anchor, unleashed a anti-abortion law with “dark dystopian undertones.” News networks, led by progressiv­e female anchors, have declared the Supreme Court abandoned Roe v. Wade and effectivel­y rendered abortion unconstitu­tional. I could only wish that were the case.

In Texas, the legislatur­e passed a law that allows citizens a private right to sue to stop abortion. The Supreme Court let the law stay in effect, pending litigation, because the pro-abortion advocates who sued filed suit against state officials who cannot, under that law, enforce it. Courts cannot stop laws. They can only stop people from enforcing laws and the people stopped must be the ones sued. Abortion advocates would have you believe abortion is now banned. The American media, with its bias, is amplifying that talking point. The reality is the plaintiffs sued the wrong people.

Sadly, Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land. The claims of dystopia are fiction from a biased, insular press that is in favor of killing children. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will overturn Roe. But that has not happened and probably won’t. The apocalypse will have to wait for Jesus.

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