Framing the Debate: This Week Paints Constitutional Debate As Pro-Life
Click here to view this media (h/t Heather at VideoCafe ) It’s an insidious thing, framing the debate. And too often, people watch the Sunday news shows without doing the meta-analysis necessary to evaluate the truthfulness or accuracy of the information being presented to them. They don’t look at the partisan or ideological bents of the invited guests; they don’t consider the assumptions made the framing of questions. It never occurs to them that the media is trying to lead them to a specific point of view, even if it’s not necessarily the one you actually hold. I noticed this little bit of framing in the intro for This Week’s roundtable discussion of the Constitution. It’s just a small part of a larger intro, but it’s very telling in the way that ABC News views the abortion debate. Go to 1:47 of the intro. Here’s the other way we’ve long tended to treat the Constitution — as wrapping paper, as in wrap yourself in it to make your case sound even better type of wrapping paper, to put a nice bow on it. Which is really nothing new. Every case that ever gets to the Supreme Court gets there because both sides argue they have the Constitution on their side. Richard Nixon, refusing to give up his tapes, said the Constitution protected him. He lost. Folks that want to burn the American flag say the Constitution protects them. They generally win. People who argue the Constitution protects the unborn have yet to win their battle. Hold on…what was that? “Have YET to win their battle”??? Um, no. They lost that battle. It was called Roe v. Wade and the Supreme Court decided that an actual born woman’s right to privacy and determine medical procedures on her body superseded any potential (and nonviable) life forms. That is the law of the land, Republican attempts to thwart it notwithstanding. But so kind of ABC News and John Donvan to frame it as an still existing battle on behalf of the anti-choicers.
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Framing the Debate: This Week Paints Constitutional Debate As Pro-Life
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on July 3, 2011. Filed under