A few weeks ago, NewsBusters ran a story on an MSNBC segment with Thomas Roberts regarding abortion. This occasioned Bill Donohue to write the following letter to MSNBC soon after:
Ms. Kathy Kelly-Brown
Senior Vice President
Communications
NBCUniversal News Group
MSNBC
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, New York 10112
Dear Ms. Kelly-Brown:
If MSNBC wants to invite someone from Catholics for Choice to discuss abortion, that’s fine. But truth in advertising standards demand that the spokesperson not be identified as representing the position of the Catholic Church. That is exactly what happened on November 19 when Thomas Roberts introduced Sara Hutchinson, a spokesperson for Catholics for Choice. After MSNBC contributor and abortion-rights advocate Irin Carmon expressed her position on the Albuquerque, New Mexico proposed law banning abortions after 20 weeks, Roberts said, “Okay, so let’s talk to the Church side.”
There is nothing “Catholic” about Catholics for Choice, and everyone knows it. Would MSNBC allow someone from Jews for Jesus to speak for Jews? If you want to present two pro-abortion sides as part of your discussion, that is your business. But please refrain from lying to your viewers about “the Church side.”
