NPR's Liz Halloran touted the federal government's Title X subsidy of contraceptives as "largely noncontroversial" in a Monday article on NPR.org, despite the House of Representatives' 240-185 vote in February to defund the program. Halloran also quoted exclusively from liberal Title X supporters or from conservatives who had second thoughts about targeting the program.
It only took her two paragraphs for the correspondent to use this slanted label of the federal program in her article, "Abortion Foes Target Family Planning Program." She also highlighted the longstanding funding of "family planning programs that provide contraceptive and related health and family services to millions of low-income women and men" and noted how Title X passed with "bipartisan support in Congress."
Halloran continued that "Title X, which serves more than 5 million men and women annually, is on House Republicans' chopping block. Supporters of defunding have characterized it as an effort to strip funds from Planned Parenthood and other organizations that use other funds to provide legal abortions, without singling out any particular group. The House in February voted 240-185 to defund Title X in the current budget year." But instead of tracking down one of the representatives who voted for this, or from one of their allies in the conservative movement, the journalist turned to a Republican skeptic:
Liz Halloran
By Matthew Balan | March 21, 2011 | 6:32 PM EDT
By Tim Graham | March 28, 2010 | 8:00 PM EDT
For many years, David Yepsen was the go-to media expert on the Iowa caucuses from his post at the Des Moines Register. Yepsen isn't a reporter any more, just a pundit, but the media still follow his liberal conventional wisdom. On NPR.org, reporter Liz Halloran tried to paint the Tea Party movement into the usual crazy corner, and Yepsen insists this weekend was critical for the Tea Party movement's image -- as if every NPR and CNN isn't working to paint the crazy on it:
"This weekend will be critical for the Tea Party and conservatives," says David Yepsen of Southern Illinois University's Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.