Science Archive
August 25, 2010 CBS, NBC Mourn Loss of Funding for Embryonic Stem Cell Research August 13, 2010 MSNBC Contributor: 14th Amendment Debate about Eugenics, Xenophobia June 29, 2010 Fireworks Are 'Toxic, Environmental Hazard,' Claims Green Movement June 16, 2010 HuffPo Blogger to Opponents of New Abortion Pill: ‘Back May 19, 2010 Debunking the Myth: There is No Biblical Basis for Global Warming Alarmism Says Theologian March 15, 2010 CNN Documentary Depicts Sex Change as a 'Medical Necessity ... Done to Preserve Life' February 19, 2010 CNN Perpetuates Dangerous Tuskegee Myth February 2, 2010 Washington Post Says Abstinence Programs 'Might Work' Just Days after Attacking Them December 22, 2009 'Christmas Perils' Preoccupy Washington Post December 11, 2009 The Canadian Financial Post: ‘The Whole World Needs to Adopt China’s One-Child Policy’ November 25, 2009 Networks Take Bite Out of 'Most Gutbusting Holiday' August 25, 2009 Media’s Pro-Choice Darling Called Humans ‘Ecotumors' July 31, 2009 Snyderman not the Doctor to Trust the With Your Daughter’s Health July 15, 2009 72-Year-Old Wants Child; Behar Says Go For It July 9, 2009 Washington Post Report Ignores Failure of Embryonic Stem Cell Research June 10, 2009 ‘The View’: ‘Pregnant Man’ is a Woman April 27, 2009 CMI Commentary: CNN Plan B Coverage an Insult to Pro-Life Women April 23, 2009 Networks Ignore Health, Parental Concerns over Plan B for Minors
April 8, 2009 SWF Seeks Man, Woman or Famous Landmark April 2, 2009 Enviro-Elmo Gives Green Gospel to Terrible Twos March 30, 2009 CBS: Embryonic Stem Cells Could Provide ‘An Unlimited Supply of Blood’ March 26, 2009 Post Article Largely Ignores Health Problems with Gardasil Vaccine March 13, 2009
AP Falsely Implied Obama Opposed All Cloning February 19, 2009 A Lasting Last Carbon Footprint February 6, 2009 ‘Today Show’ Suggests Single Moms Only Need Dad’s Money January 28, 2009 CBS Highlights 'Eco-Warrior' Kids Living 'Green Gospel' January 7, 2009 Nick’s Big Green Hype January 6, 2009 'Entertainment' Show Promotes Lefty Whale-Saving Cause December 29, 2008 Today Show Ignores Counterpoint in Major Teen Sex Study November 17, 2008 ABC Special Touts Sex Changes as Normal November 14, 2008 ABC: Courts, not Chromosomes, Now Define Sex November 5, 2008
Ballot Measure Results Mixed for Values Issues September 16, 2008 ABC and MSNBC Respect Medical Miracles and the Power of Prayer August 28, 2008 About-Face: Media Outlets Turn on 'Cancer Vaccine' Maker August 21, 2008 ABC Wakes Up, Reports Gardasil Dangers August 13, 2008 Local ABC Stations Report Gardasil Story Better than ABCNews.com August 8, 2008 ABC Article Glamorizes Media Villains, Ignores Price to Society August 8, 2008 Post Writer Says ‘Gay Plague’ Is Fault of ‘Homophobia’ August 4, 2008 Washington Post Spins CDC AIDS Blunder July 31, 2008 WaPo ‘News’ Article Slams Measure Protecting Conscience of Health Care Workers July 31, 2008 No Increased Risk of Divorce, so Living Together Must Be Okay July 30, 2008 ABC Covers Medical Marvels Extended to the Unborn World News with Charles Gibson highlights the “tiniest, most fragile of patients” imaginable - unborn babies. July 7, 2008 CBS, NBC Downplay Serious Gardasil Side Effects July 2, 2008 CBS Sunday Morning, in both a news story and a commentary, was openly hostile to the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Second Amendment acknowledges a private right to own handguns.
In a “news report” marked by its somber tone, CBS reporter Martha Teichner attacked the “originalist” philosophy of Constitutional interpretation underlying the Supreme Court’s ruling, and challenged the winning lawyer in the case whether he cares about the people who are killed by handguns.
Later in the show, CBS commentator Nancy Giles called for the U.S. to implement comedian Chris Rock’s farcical suggestion that the U.S. should charge $5,000 per bullet.
Teichner cited the Centers for Disease Control statistic that “approximately 30,000 Americans are killed by guns every year.” While playing footage of a sheet-covered bloody corpse lying in a city street, Teichner then said “We asked Robert Levy, who brought about the Supreme Court decision, ‘Does it matter to you that people might die because of it?’”
Levy responded: “Well, of course, it matters. And I think it’s indisputably true that there will be people who die because of this ruling. There would be other people who would have died were it not for this ruling. So one has to take into account not just the cost but the benefits.”
Teichner failed to balance her story by presenting any evidence about the benefits of gun ownership or the failure of gun control laws to prevent crime. For instance, in August 2007, CMI reported in its study, “The Media Assault on the Second Amendment,” that, “according to a 1997 survey by the United States Journal of Criminal Law, more than 2.5 million people use a gun in self defense each year.”
The CMI study also reported that according to “one of the most comprehensive surveys of gun control laws” conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2003, “The Task Force found insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws or combinations of laws reviewed on violent outcomes.”
Sunday Morning also aired an editorial by CBS commentator Nancy Giles, who opined that the U.S. should enact a policy originally proposed as a joke: “The comedian Chris Rock had a brilliant idea that maybe, just maybe, both gun owners and gun-control advocates could agree with. Instead of gun control, he says, we need to control the bullets. I think all bullets should cost $5,000. Because if a bullet costs $5,000, there would be no more innocent by-standers. Okay. Sounds like a good start to me.”
Teichner attacked the “originalist” interpretation of the Second Amendment that won the day by interviewing two guests who oppose the approach. Originalism requires jurists to rule according to the original meaning of the words of the Constitution as written by the Founding Fathers.
Emphasizing the word “originalist,” Teichner reported in a condescending tone, “And in Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion, Levy had the perfect match with his own strict ‘originalist’ views of the Constitution. In other words, what the Founding Fathers intended.”
After playing two clips of Scalia explaining originalism, Teichner brought on two expert guests to criticize the doctrine. CBS news legal analyst Andrew Cohen described the Second Amendment as “horribly drafted,” and added, “The people who drafted the Second Amendment were just as addled and just as conflicted and contradictory as modern-day politicians are when it comes to these tough issues.”
The second expert, New York Law School constitutional historian R.B. Bernstein, actively belittled originalists: “I’m tempted to say to originalists sometimes that you may believe that there is a Santa Claus bringing neatly wrapped packages of original intent, understanding, or meaning for good little constitutional interpreters, but just as there is no Santa Claus, there is no originalist Santa Claus.”
Julia Seward is an intern at the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the Media Research Center.
Post Tells the Truth about ‘Safe Sex’ -- Then Ignores It June 9, 2008 Pregnant ‘Man’ Photos Make Morning Shows Squeamish May 28, 2008 Any Stick’s Good Enough to Beat Abstinence Education May 19, 2008 Media Cover Up Obama’s Malaise Speech May 9, 2008 Planting the Seeds of a Demographic Winter April 28, 2008 Expelled Critics: The Origin of Specious April 24, 2008 Abstinence Education: Bias on the Hill and in the Press LA Times nor Reuters reported that "comprehensive" sex education -- condoms and contraceptives -- receives 12 times more funding than no-sex-before-marriage programs.April 23, 2008 Gaiag Me with a Spoon April 23, 2008 Expelled Opens with a Bang April 23, 2008 They Read the Articles? Playboy Piece Wins Science Prize April 21, 2008 My Big Fat Green Wedding and Other Media Nonsense April 21, 2008 The Art of the Non-Apology TIME and HBO offend veterans and Catholics in the name of environmentalism and comedy. Too bad.April 18, 2008 Iwo Jima Vets Blast TIME's 'Special Environmental Issue' Cover April 17, 2008 Ben Stein vs. Sputtering Atheists Expelled bored. I came out of it stunned. April 17, 2008 Right Diagnosis, Wrong Remedy April 17, 2008 When Media Aren’t Ignoring Controversial Evolution Movie, Expelled, They’re Hostile New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times discussed Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth at least three dozen times before the documentary was released. Ben Stein’s Expelled? Two mentions. April 15, 2008 Evergreen Gore’s New TV Ad Is Holocaustic April 4, 2008 Oprah Redefines Normal with Pregnant ‘Man’ April 2, 2008 Expelled Encounters Hostility from the Liberal Media March 28, 2008 CBS Early Show Gives Planned Parenthood Star Treatment March 21, 2008 FaithShatters: ABC Takes an Ill-Informed Whack at Creationists Nightline series “FaithMatters” ridicules Biblical literalists. March 17, 2008
Media Silence on the Myth of ‘Safe Sex’ March 12, 2008 Couric Shocked, Shocked! That 50% of Teen Girls Are Sexually Active, and 25% Have STDs January 25, 2008 Does Katie Couric Believe in Time Travel? Evening News suggests the 2006 teen birth rate spike is somehow ‘connected’ to pro-life films released in 2007. January 19, 2008 NBC Painfully Faces an Inconvenient Truth: Men and Women are Different November 21, 2007 'Revolutionary' Stem Cell Research Breakthrough Gets Skeptical Treatment from ABC August 13, 2007 CBS Pumps Over-the-Counter ‘Emergency Contraceptives’ August 9, 2007 Earth to Couric: Personal Responsibility, Not Socialized Medicine, Will Save Lives August 7, 2007 Babies and TV Screens Don’t Mix July 20, 2007 Why is the Bureau of Prisons Squelching a Child Porn Link to Molestation? July 17, 2007 Top Medical Events Tell a Sorry Story July 11, 2007 Beating around the Bush June 21, 2007 Bush vs. Science? June 7, 2007 #1 Rated Newscast Ignores Major Stem Cell Story April 19, 2007 Liberal Media Use Flawed Study to Attack Abstinence-Only Education March 15, 2007 Scientist Calls Global Warming Theories 'Bunk,' Cites Errors of Logic January 8, 2007 Of Major News Outlets, Only NBC Gets Amniotic Stem Cell Story Right
