What I Need is Truth Will Someone Tell Me That for a Change?

The media, meaning news stations, newspapers, etc., are supposed to tell the public the truth. The job of the media is supposed to be to deliver to the public an unbiased report on what is taking place in the world. I would be astounded if anyone were able to find a truly unbiased, mainstream media, newspaper or news station.

Today I read in Newsday an article entitled "Pregnant Pause" focusing on the new pro-life movie Juno. Newsday is known to be biased to the liberal side along with being anti-catholic and pro-abortion. As such their article on Juno was, unsurprisingly, less than enthusiastic.

Newsday's article spoke not only of Juno but of other movies involving pregnant women such as "Bella", "Knocked Up", "Waitress", Romanian film "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days", and "The Business of Being Born". Also mentioned in the article was "the copious fawning over celebs and their "baby bumps" (Halle Berry on the cover of In Style magazine; 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears on the cover of everything else)".

Newsday points out that in the movies listed the "'A' word" (abortion) is hardly ever used. They state that of the 5 movies the only one in which the pregnant woman enters an abortion clinic is Juno. Maybe Newsday missed the heartwrenching flash-forward in Bella in which Nina not only enters the clinic but continues all the way into the operating room. As for the women not using the "'A' word" this is true to real life. Women seeking abortions almost always use words such as "the procedure" and place a taboo on the word "abortion". Knowing this it is not at all unrealistic to suppose that "In 'Waitress', Keri Russell's character cuts her doctor off before he says it". This avoidance of the word, therefore, is much more truthful towards real life than Newsday seems to care to be.

Newsday furthermore makes the case that there is an avoidance of abortion as a whole in these movies. Again perhaps Newsday missed the fact that both Nina (the "heroine in Bella") and Juno consider abortions to the point that they enter a clinic. However Newsday does raise a valid question in regards to "Knocked Up" when they state that the lead character "may fret over whether she should pursue a relationship with the slacker, but there's no question she's having the baby". While I agree with Newsday that it seems rather unrealistic that "an aspiring TV journalist pregnant after a drunken one-night stand with a goofball" would have absolutely no qualms about bringing her child to birth Newsday does not choose the best defense of their position.

To prove that very few women would carry an unintended pregnancy to term Newsday quotes the Guttmacher Institute, a liberal organization affiliated with Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States. If Newsday had any interest in conducting honest reporting they would certainly not have chosen as their source of information an institution with vested interests. If however Newsday insists upon using the Guttmacher Institute it would be only fair for them to report that the Institute is affiliated with Planned Parenthood and known to lean to the left on issues such as abortion, since they noted that The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which did not place abortion film "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" in their top five picks for best foreign film, as "a group of voters known to skew older and more conservative".

Newsday followed up "Pregnant Pause" with another article ironically entitled "Truth (and consequences)". In this article Newsday interviews several girls who attend Brentwood High School. One of the girls states that "She hears other girls admiring their baby bumps, predicting how chubby their newborns will be and cooing about the cuddly baby clothes they can buy." I don't know what's up with girls in Brentwood cuz any unwed pregnant teen I've ever met sure isn't admiring her baby bump. Newsday uses this quote, and several more, to segway into a discussion of fantasy versus reality in terms of what life is like with a child. From what I'm seeing Newsday seems to be dealing more in fantasy than anyone else.

There is a fantastic song by Matt Maher entitled Void. There is a line in this song in which he says "What I need is truth, Will someone tell me that for a change?" That's what I'd like. A little truth. A little truth from Newsday and the entire mainstream media. Save the opinions for the columnists and stick to reporting the facts.

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me."
-John 14:6