By Dave Andrusko
NRLC President Carol Tobias
All this week National Right to Life President and Pro-Life Perspective host Carol Tobias tackles an immensely important topic: the many and varied ways you can work with your local news outlets to ensure fair and accurate coverage of pro-life issues. Emphasis on “work with.”
In these five-minute segments, Mrs. Tobias answers such questions as “What can you do when you see a report in the media that inaccurately reports on pro-life efforts or when a fact is omitted from a story?” Those might be called sins of omission. And how do you combat bias in news reports, sins of commission?
Mrs. Tobias talks about the role of Journalism and the effect of media bias on our cause. She begins by reminding us that news outlets are money making enterprise. But there is also an industry-wide ethic –objectivity—which includes a commitment to balance which comes from giving both sides. However this neutrality is not something that we can insist on. It is rather a kind of professionalism that journalists impose on themselves that we need to appeal to.
Building relationships is key, she emphasizes. Reporters must come to see us as accurate sources of news—we must have credibility. National Right to Life has spent years building credibility. So when errors or inaccuracies pop up, Mrs. Tobias explains, we have a starting place to rectify those errors—or at least prevent them from reoccurring.
Be sure to listen all week to “Dealing with Media Inaccuracies.” You’ll find the broadcasts at www.prolifeperspective.com.
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