Some marchers march without notice

Imagine something unimaginable: the Million Mom March for gun control being held last weekend in Washington, D.C., and throughout the nation with absolutely no coverage from the media.

Picture hundreds of thousands of women converging on various capitals, pressing their concerns about gun safety and legislation, but being ignored by newspapers and television.

Instead of banner headlines, like "'Enough,' voices cry in unity" (Albany Times Union), there would have been silence. In place of the two stories and three photos that occupied half of the front page of the Daily Gazette in Schenectady, there would have been, at most, a three-paragraph story on page 18.

Imagine no lead stories on local and national TV news, no interviews with participants, no summary of their viewpoint, and no general if unspoken sense from reporters that the marchers' cause is just and admirable.

If you can't imagine that, try this: lots of coverage, but all of it negative. Envision columns referring to the marchers as misguided and possibly dangerous, cartoons lambasting them as backward and ignorant, politicians suggesting they should be arrested for blocking streets. Far from the lead editorial in The New York Times on May 15, titled "The Power of Mothers Marching," there would have been an opinion piece excoriating them for daring to speak out.

Both scenarios -- no coverage or negative coverage -- are unimaginable, right? Not to another set of marchers -- the tens of thousands of pro-lifers who gather every January in Washington and elsewhere for the March for Life. For a quarter-century, they have been assembling to express their views and press for legislation to protect the unborn. They have done so with little notice from the secular media; you won't find front-page headlines about them or lead stories on the nightly news. What notice they do get is often negative. (If a Million Pro-Lifers March were announced but only 150,000 people showed up, as happened with the moms, how quickly would the word "failure" appear in news stories?)

But still they march on, filling the time between parades with actions that continue their cause: lobbying legislatures, operating homes for unwed mothers, donating to charities that help women and children, taking in women with problem pregnancies.

Next winter, when the March for Life is held, remember the Million Mom March and how much the media can do to support pro-life causes when they want to.

Return to Home Page

(05-25-00)

[[In-content Ad]]