CBS rekindled its love for pro-abortion politician Wendy Davis on Thursday's CBS Evening News, after the Democrat announced her candidacy in the Texas gubernatorial race. Norah O'Donnell trumpeted how "Davis was a little-known Democratic state senator in Texas. But her marathon defense of abortion rights drew national attention."
Manuel Bojorquez heralded how state legislator "stepped into the national spotlight with pink sneakers, during a 13-hour filibuster of new abortion restrictions here." However, Bojorquez was among the Big Three journalists who put that spotlight on Davis mere hours after she stalled the passage of pro-life legislation in the Lone Star State. At the time, he asserted that the filibuster turned the Democrat "a national political star". [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
Wendy Davis
"Wendy Davis, Misogyny Magnet," blared a teaser headline on the Time.com front page this afternoon. The headline was accompanied by a photo of the Democratic Texas state senator who is most famous for her lengthy but ultimately unsuccessful filibuster of a bill to regulate the Lone Star State's abortion clinics.
The article in question -- written by Center for American Progress Senior Fellow and former New York Times Opinionator columnist Judith Warner -- was posted in the magazine's Ideas blog, an opinion feature which does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Time's editorial board. That said, the premise of Warner's piece was essentially that the pro-choice lobby's favorite new bogeyman, Republicans engaged in a war on women* will propel Davis into the governor's chair next fall (emphases mine):
"Is she Cinderella or Joan of Arc?" Time.com contributor Hilary Hylton mused of Texas State Senator Wendy Davis (D) in the lead sentence of her Friday, September 27 story, "Wendy Davis Laces Up Her Running (for Governor) Shoes." ] "Now that she’s on the verge of announcing a run for Texas governor, everyone is wondering whether the glass slipper will fit, or will she be a martyr for her cause?" Hylton reasoned.[h/t Joshua Trevino of the Texas Public Policy Foundation]
If by "everyone," Hylton means the subset of humanity that constitutes America's liberal political journalists, than yes, she may have a point. Most Americans and I would imagine most Texans, however, don't even know who Wendy Davis is. Hylton seems to get that and adds that, "In reality, the story unfolding in Texas will likely neither be fanciful nor tragic, but a very long, very expensive and very nasty political tale." Translation: win or lose (likely the latter), Wendy Davis will get banged up something fierce in her race for governor.
The networks reacted negatively to Ted Cruz's "long-winded protest." On Wednesday, George Stephanopoulos derided it as "bizarre." This is not exactly the reception Democratic state senator Wendy Davis received when she fought against pro-life legislation in Texas. [See video below for a montage of media slobbering. MP3 audio here.]
On June 27, CBS This Morning correspondent Manuel Bojorquez thrilled, "The marathon filibuster that went viral has turned a little-known Texas lawmaker into a national political star." He added, "Some political analysts are comparing it to the 1988 Democratic convention speech that catapulted Ann Richards to the national stage." On July 1, CNN's Miguel Marquez enthused, "A Democrat in the governor’s mansion here? Unthinkable a week ago; a ‘maybe’ today."
Back in June, Texas State Senator Wendy Davis became a national darling of the left when she filibustered in opposition to legislation, ultimately passed in July, which bans most abortions in the Lone Star State after 20 weeks of pregnancy and "requires doctors performing an abortion to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion clinic."
The arch-liberal Huffington Post was among those losing all perspective over the alleged wonders of Wendy Davis. An astute tweet carried at Twitchy.com (original tweet here) notes that at one point it headlined Davis's stalling tactics as "THE FILIBUSTER HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD." Now let's compare how HuffPo is treating Texas Senator Ted Cruz's filibuster:
Earlier today in their "cheat sheet" digest of "must-reads," the Daily Beast hailed as "worth it" Texas State Senator Wendy Davis's hours-long, but ultimately unsuccessful filibuster against a measure that toughened abortion clinic regulations and outlawed late term abortions in the Lone Star State. [see screen capture below]
The linked item in the digest is a Politico story about Davis raking in $1.2 million, mostly in small-dollar donations, since her 11-hour-long filibuster. While that's nothing to sneeze at for an otherwise obscure state senator with long-shot odds of winning the 2014 governors race, it's still a drop in the bucket against Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
Corrected from earlier | Just when you thought the whole Wendy Davis obsession was dying down, Vogue has up and done a puffy profile of the Texas state senator and abortion rights absolutist for its September issue. Now, I know you're tempted to run out to the newsstand and snatch up a copy, but apparently the Daily Beast's Erin Cunningham did America a favor with a blog post today about the "13 Things You Didn't Know About Wendy Davis."
"From her love of Victoria Beckham to her teenage rebellious phase [here are]13 things we learned from Vogue’s September-issue profile of Wendy Davis," the subheader for Erin Cunningham's August 15 post gushed. Predictably full of pablum and puffery, Cunningham closed her short piece on a absurdly trite note:
Wendy Davis, the Democratic state senator from Texas who attracted fawning national media attention after she filibustered a Republican-led bill banning abortion after 20 weeks, received a standing ovation after speaking at a National Press Club-sponsored luncheon today.
Davis promised to run for either her state senate seat or governor in the 2014 Texas state elections. Video below:
With Matt Philbin
Remember the media blackout of the Gosnell trial? Earlier this year, Philadelphia late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted of three counts of murder – two of them delivering babies and then killing them in his filthy “house of horrors” clinic. He was also found guilty of more than 230 other felony and misdemeanor charges.
Pundits and journalists excused the media neglect, saying late term abortion was just too uncomfortable, the descriptions of the clinic too lurid, or dismissing it as a “local” issue. That’s not how the broadcast networks have treated the pro-abortion crusade of Texas Democrat Wendy Davis.
We shouldn’t be surprised that the liberal media is frustrated over the fact that pro-life conservatives won a monumental battle in Texas on July 13. HB-2, which was signed into law by Gov. Perry yesterday bans abortions after 20-weeks into a pregnancy. It also mandates that abortion clinics upgrade their medical equipment – and be reclassified as surgical medical centers.
Particularly annoyed with the new law was one Philip Bump of the Atlantic. In his July 18 piece, Bump groused that Perry passed political optics 101 by having plenty of women with him at HB-2's signing ceremony.
Mainstream media outlets have offered effusive praise for Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis (D) since her 11-hour filibuster against a bill that would limit abortion access in the Lone Star State. Despite the bill’s recent and overwhelming passage through both chambers of the Texas state legislature, the national media continue to cheer on their latest liberal darling – and hype her upcoming fundraising trip to our nation’s capital.
ABC News’s The Note – the network’s online political blog – fawned over Davis’s forthcoming visit to Washington, D.C. in a Wednesday post, with “Wendy Davis Goes to Washington” displayed prominently on the front page.
The Associated Press, the most powerful and widely used wire service in the world, decided last week to lend its support to the extremist views of Texas state senator Wendy Davis by utlizing a Twitter hashtag #StandWithWendy used by her supporters.
After pro-life bloggers called attention to the tweet, AP deleted the tweet from its official timeline but the wire service has still not apologized for its action.