Lack of Pro-Life Media Coverage...Is This Really Surprising in Canada?

TORONTO, May 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Like the CBC, the Toronto Star, which is Canada's largest newspaper based in Canada's largest city, failed to report on the over 12,000 Canadians who marched for life at Parliament Hill earlier this May. Instead, the paper's editors gave extra coverage to a US story about a man who was jailed over two years ago for killing an abortionist more than 10 years ago.

While the media blackout of the National March for Life is an annual occurrence, this year's huge support for the march from Canadian Catholic Bishops, coupled with a record number of marchers, has incited pro-life groups to take action against the media bias against socially conservative causes.

Campaign Life Coalition just days ago sent a letter to the CBC criticizing the fact that they again denied coverage to the annual march:

"How is it that CBC's national news desk has in the recent past given lengthy coverage to a paltry 200 individuals at a pro-marijuana rally on the Hill," asks the letter, "but fails to notice 12,000+ prolife citizens overflowing the grounds of Parliament Hill?"

"Is this not proof of a double standard which favours 'socially liberal' causes?"

I think every Canadian knows the answer to that last question, although the myth of the mainstream`s media objectivity--an impossible idea for any angle--will certainly remain in the minds of many.

Ultimately, the problem that I have with this issue is not that both the Toronto Star and the CBC did not report the event, but rather that my tax dollars are paying for the CBC and they did not report the event. Thus, I am forced into a position where my personal money, taken from me by the Canadian Government, is funding a social propaganda campaign (through silence) that I do not subscribe to, endorse or otherwise wish to support. And yet, I have no choice in the matter.

As a related side note, I would be equally frustrated if the government run CBC was biased towards socially conservative ideas for the simple fact that, as much as possible, political worldviews and ideologies should be argued for based on their merits and effectiveness, not through a media machine.