Anti-choice activists have long argued that the so-called “liberal media” is hopelessly biased against their cause. A new study from Media Matters aims to kill this myth once and for all. According to the study, every major news outlet except for MSNBC featured significantly more anti-choice than pro-choice speakers. The anti-choice guests were typically male, and often cited debunked research or outright lies about abortion.
How Media Matters Gathered its Data
Researchers from Media Matters analyzed prime time and evening news coverage on the three big news networks—CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, from January 1, 2015-March 6, 2016. The analyzed segments included only those that featured substantive discussions of abortion issues.
Researchers then assessed which speakers had publicly identified as pro or anti-choice, and coded their statements according to their truth value. The research specifically looked at four common types of misinformation about abortion. Those were:
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The Center for Medical Progress is a mainstream, unbiased media outlet. CMP is actually a zealous anti-choice group that has repeatedly been caught making misleading propaganda.
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Birth control causes abortion. This idea has been repeatedly debunked, and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of human reproduction.
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Planned Parenthood sells, harvests, or otherwise profits from fetal tissue.
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Government funds paid to Planned Parenthood through Medicaid are used to pay for abortions. This is illegal, and there is no evidence that it occurs.
Researchers also assessed whether anti-choice speakers tapped to offer analysis had a history of making false statements to other media outlets.
Media Coverage of Abortion: Male, Anti-Choice, and Dishonest
The results revealed that analysts were overwhelmingly anti-choice, except on MSNBC. CNN featured three times as many anti-choice as pro-choice guests. Guests speaking about abortion were also significantly more likely to be male. Specifically, 62% of all speakers on abortion were allowed to discuss a choice they would never have to make. Male speakers were also significantly more likely to be anti-choice and to provide inaccurate information about abortion.
Across all media outlets, speakers uttered a total of 796 false statements about abortion and 288 accurate statements. MSNBC was the only media outlet that offered more accurate than inaccurate statements. Though the channel covered abortion less than other media outlets, speakers made 37 inaccurate statements and 87 accurate statements. Thus 70% of abortion-related statements on MSNBC were accurate, compared to less than half on other channels.
Speakers about abortion also skewed heavily white, and just one segment featured a group dedicated to reproductive rights for women of color. This is fundamentally misleading, since women of color have abortions at five times the rate of their white peers.
The only media outlet that did not consistently provide misleading information about abortion was MSNBC. Forty-nine percent of MSNBC guests openly identified as pro-choice.
A Dogged Commitment by Fox News to Deception
Though deceptive comments by male anti-choice advocates were common on all media outlets, Fox News displayed a special commitment to inaccuracy. The channel features 705 inaccurate statements about abortion, such as that birth control causes abortion. Commentators on Fox News made just 158 accurate statements about abortion. Seventy percent of Fox News guests openly identified as anti-choice.
Presenting Bias as Fact
Media advocacy groups have long criticized media outlets for adopting a “both sides” approach to issue coverage. In this approach, each side of an issue is treated as equally valid, even when the evidence supports only one side. For example, treating evolution and creationism as equally valid scientific approaches is misleading.
The latest research points to more direct deception. Media outlets clearly allow speakers to lie about abortion, and those lies are rarely questioned. Over time, this can alter perceptions of abortion and of women who seek abortions. No matter where you fall in the continuum of opinions about choice, accurate information is vital to making intelligent voting, advocacy, and legislative decisions. When the press deprives people of this accuracy, it becomes a driver of public opinion rather than just a source of facts.
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