Rapid City Journal reporter Kevin Woster is wondering Public Radio bias on Mt. Blogmore:
[D]uring a local news break, a South Dakota public radio reporter did a piece on the lawsuit filed in federal court by Planned Parenthood challenging a law passed by the state Legislature requiring abortion providers to give specific information to their patients prior to the procedure about the effects of the abortion.
The public-radio report had some live quotes from Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Kate Looby saying she was confident the federal judge would see the problems in the law and rule in favor of Planned Parenthood. She also said the law requires abortion providers to give information that is clearly erroneous.
No problem so far. I was waiting for the live quotes from one of the legislators who sponsored or voted for the bill or a state lawyer, arguing, of course, that the required information was not erroneous and touting the new law and its chances in court. That never came. Instead, the public-radio reporter virtually ignored the other side and very briefly summarized what an unnamed lawyer representing the state said about the law.
Not good enough, by a long shot.
By the way - if my 53-year-old memory serves me - this is the second time in the last few weeks that I’ve heard a report on public radio that gave Kate Looby and Planned Parenthood live quotes on this issue without anything close to a fair and equal response from the opposition.
You’d like to hope this is just a coincidence of a rushed reporter not taking the time necessary to balance a story. That happens. We make mistakes.
But the fact that it happened twice on the same story certainly raises larger questions.
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