CNN wasn't interested in balance on Tuesday, as three straight programs brought on pro-euthanasia activists to tout California's new "End of Life Option Act," which was signed into law on Monday. All three also left out opponents of the legislation. CNN Newsroom featured a man whose wife was the subject of a HBO documentary titled How to Die in Oregon. On At This Hour, Kate Bolduan hyped the "groundbreaking move," and interviewed a "right to die advocate" with terminal cancer. Legal View turned to the widower of pro-euthanasia activist Brittany Maynard, who took her life in November 2014.
Brittany Maynard
By Curtis Houck | September 11, 2015 | 12:34 AM EDT
On Thursday, the CBS Evening News pushed a heavily slanted report on assisted suicide a day before the California State Senate will vote on whether or not to legalize the matter in the Golden State that would be modeled after Oregon’s law allowing doctors to provide lethal medication to extremely ill patients. In the three-minute-and-three-second segment, only 32 seconds were devoted to the pro-life cause against euthanasia that chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook ruled will not be settled anytime soon.
By Tom Blumer | December 31, 2014 | 11:04 AM EST
If CNN is searching for reasons why its ratings are at an all-time low, it doesn't need to look any further than one entry in its group of "11 extraordinary people of 2014" published on December 5.
Aside from the inanity of publishing such an annual list almost four weeks before year's end — as if no extraordinary people or extraordinary acts ever take place in December — the network's fourth selection was patently offensive, and had no substantive basis for being considered "extraordinary."
By Matthew Balan | November 20, 2014 | 12:21 PM EST
It would seem that not everyone on the left side of the political spectrum has a tolerant attitude towards Hispanics, if a segment on Wednesday's The Last Word on MSNBC is any indication. Hours before President Obama is expected to take executive action to legalize millions of Latin American illegal immigrants, guest Anita Freeman blamed the "very high Latino population" for California's failure to legalize euthanasia, as they "seem to go with [the] Catholic religion."
By Matthew Balan | November 19, 2014 | 3:48 PM EST
Wednesday's CBS This Morning played up how "the Vatican is under fire from the mother of a woman who ended her own life." Jan Crawford's spotlighted Deborah Ziegler's "sharply-worded letter" to opponents of euthanasia, especially Pope Francis and the Catholic Church. Ziegler's daughter, Brittany Maynard, committed suicide on November 1, 2014, after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and became the face of the pro-euthanasia movement during her final days.
By Matthew Balan | November 3, 2014 | 5:30 PM EST
NBC's Today and CBS This Morning both led their broadcasts on Monday with euthanasia advocate Brittany Maynard's drug-induced suicide. The morning shows' anchors sang the praises of the "beautiful, brave young woman," as Gayle King labeled Maynard. Charlie Rose touted how the cancer patient's "short and meaningful life is over." Savannah Guthrie gushed, "What a remarkable young woman, and to share it with everyone, obviously, took a lot of courage."
By Katie Yoder | November 3, 2014 | 4:11 PM EST
It’s a sad excuse for what should be a saddening obituary.
Twenty-nine-year-old Brittany Maynard tragically chose to end her life on Nov. 2, after being diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of terminal brain cancer. Having moved to Oregon from California, she took advantage of the state’s Death with Dignity Act, in which a physician can legally supply fatal medication.