No "Liberals" In the Pro-Abortion Lobby?
 

     David Kirkpatrick, who covers the conservative movement for the Times, works the other side of the street Wednesday in "For Democrats, Rethinking Abortion Position Meets With Mix of Reactions in Party."

     Kirkpatrick starts: "In their search for middle ground on the subject of abortion, Democrats are encountering a mixture of resistance and retreat from abortion rights advocates in their own party. Since its defeats in the November elections, nothing has put the fractured soul of the Democratic Party on display more vividly than abortion. Party leaders, including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and the new chairman, Howard Dean, have repeatedly signaled an effort to recalibrate the party's thinking about new restrictions on abortion. Adding to that, Congressional Democrats named a professed opponent of abortion rights, Harry Reid of Nevada, as the leader in the Senate. Some Democrats supported another abortion opponent, Timothy J. Roemer, for the party's chairmanship."

     But Reid's reputation as an abortion "opponent" is overblown, according to National Right to Life Legislative Director Douglas Johnson, who examines Reid's actual voting record and notes: "The news media has labeled Reid as pro-life, but for years he has usually voted against the pro-life side on the most important votes. Indeed, in recent years Reid has played a key role in obstructing both pro-life legislation and judicial nominees, and I expect he will attempt to continue doing so."

     Kirkpatrick also retains his old habit of labeling  bias. Note how even in an article about liberal abortion-rights supporters, Kirkpatrick manages to tilt his piece with conservative labels: "In this week's edition of the conservative Weekly Standard, Naral placed an advertisement asking abortion rights groups to 'please, help us prevent abortions' by increasing access to birth control." Yet none of the pro-abortion groups cited by Kirkpatrick are labeled liberal.

     For an antidote, check out the nearly unprecedented (for the Times) balanced labeling in Leslie Wayne's Wednesday report on PBS controversies, in which five instances of "conservative" are balanced out with three references to "liberals" plus one "left-leaning." Now, was that so hard?

For Wayne's full (and balanced) story, click here:

For the full Kirkpatrick story, click here:

Wong Still Sees All Wrong In Iraq
 

     The eternally pessimistic Edward  Wong files another gloomy report from Iraq, this time from Najaf, "Iraq Holy City Suffers Lack Of Utilities And Pilgrims."

     "One of the holiest cities of Shiite Islam has become one of the loneliest. Once thronged with pilgrims, its dusty lanes and twisting alleyways are empty of visitors. Gas and electricity shortages leave homes cheerless and uninviting after nightfall. Entire blocks of the Old City, clustered around the golden-domed shrine to the Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law, remain in ruins nearly six months after a fierce battle between the Americans and a Shiite militia."

     Wong couches even promising events in bad tidings: "The Americans hold this city up as a model of stability, having pacified the militia of Moktada al-Sadr, the young rebel cleric. Unlike the practice in some parts of the country, American troops here make brief forays into crowded markets to talk with Iraqis, and this province was one of only two in the country that had no attacks for most of January, according to a report from a Western security company. But while Najaf, a city of half a million, holds more promise than most parts of Iraq, it is still mired in problems emblematic of the postinvasion era. Because of the violence afflicting much of the country, and because of the devastation strewn across downtown Najaf, Shiite pilgrims have stopped coming here, crippling the economy."

For the full Wong story, click here: