The team at Media Research Center ran the numbers. They looked at 86 stories on ABC, NBC and CBS evening and morning shows, starting the day after the Alito draft was leaked through the morning of May 10, and found the voices of abortion advocates overwhelmed pro-lifers by a count of 153 to 57.
According to MRC, the breakdown was as follows: CBS viewers heard from 61 abortion advocates but just 17 pro-lifers; NBC viewers 53-27; and ABC viewers 39-13.
MRC's Curtis Houck says there also was a lot of bad reporting, this being one example (from May 5):
"Hillary Clinton was on with Norah O'Donnell, on CBS, and she ranted without any pushback about how the opinion is 'dark' and 'incredibly dangerous' – and she speculated that there's no limit to what Republicans will do," Houck tells AFN.
He continues, explaining that the bias is found in more than just the raw numbers; the wording the mainstream media uses is another indication of bias, he says.
"It's framed around abortion 'rights.' The lead-in from these journalists is always talking about the fight for abortion 'rights,'" Houck argues. "It's never about the fight for life, or the fight for the unborn."
Then there's the echo chamber he says the media creates to influence public opinion.
"Once you repeat something over and over again, very often it's about setting it in people's minds," he explains, "because we know that repetition is one of the best ways to memorize something. So that's kind of what they've done with abortion."
And while a lot of bias flies under the radar for the casual viewer, Houck suggests keeping one rule in mind: "Just like writing, it's how you start and it's how you end."
