Saturday, July 02, 2005
Biased language about Roman Catholics
This message was also sent to the NPR Ombudsman and to Morning Edition:
Today's (June 28, 2005) report about the Philippines on Morning Edition had what seemed to be biased language. I am a Roman Catholic and am pro-life.
I was particularly concerned about associating "reproductive health" with "abortion" and "contraception" and describing people opposed to contraception and abortion as "opposed to reproductive health." Nothing is further from the truth.
The report described the health clinics as privately funded, but it did not mention the source of the private funding, which might explain the reason for some of the opposition to the clinics. The report did not indicate if the clinics would be allowed to stay opened if they stopped promoting contraception, which, by the way, seems to be a more accurate description than "modern family planning."
The report also failed to properly explain why the Roman Catholic Church and the government leaders of the Philippines are opposed to contraception and abortion. Simply quoting the Archbishop (or Bishop?) as seeing contraception as being a step closer to abortion is a shallow and incomplete explanation. One good source for a complete explanation is the encyclical of Pope Paul VI called Humanae Vitae (On the Regulation of Birth) http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/P6HUMANA.HTM. This encyclical could have been quickly mentioned in the report, but it was not.
I understand that Morning Edition cannot have extremely detailed reports. I also agree that Morning Edition does an excellent job of maintaining balance (or at least attempting to maintain balance), but reports should acknowledge when the they are incomplete and ideally should provide recommendations for additional resources, like web sites or books, that listeners can access for a complete perspective on larger, important subjects.
Thank you for considering my comments. I think you do a really good job and appreciate all your hard work.
--Best regards, Joel Maurer, Englewood, Listener of WMUB 88.5 FM and many other public radio stations!
Today's (June 28, 2005) report about the Philippines on Morning Edition had what seemed to be biased language. I am a Roman Catholic and am pro-life.
I was particularly concerned about associating "reproductive health" with "abortion" and "contraception" and describing people opposed to contraception and abortion as "opposed to reproductive health." Nothing is further from the truth.
The report described the health clinics as privately funded, but it did not mention the source of the private funding, which might explain the reason for some of the opposition to the clinics. The report did not indicate if the clinics would be allowed to stay opened if they stopped promoting contraception, which, by the way, seems to be a more accurate description than "modern family planning."
The report also failed to properly explain why the Roman Catholic Church and the government leaders of the Philippines are opposed to contraception and abortion. Simply quoting the Archbishop (or Bishop?) as seeing contraception as being a step closer to abortion is a shallow and incomplete explanation. One good source for a complete explanation is the encyclical of Pope Paul VI called Humanae Vitae (On the Regulation of Birth) http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/P6HUMANA.HTM. This encyclical could have been quickly mentioned in the report, but it was not.
I understand that Morning Edition cannot have extremely detailed reports. I also agree that Morning Edition does an excellent job of maintaining balance (or at least attempting to maintain balance), but reports should acknowledge when the they are incomplete and ideally should provide recommendations for additional resources, like web sites or books, that listeners can access for a complete perspective on larger, important subjects.
Thank you for considering my comments. I think you do a really good job and appreciate all your hard work.
--Best regards, Joel Maurer, Englewood, Listener of WMUB 88.5 FM and many other public radio stations!
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