Los Angeles Times Bias Goes Too Far (39 views) Subscribe   
  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Mar-6 12:26 pm  
To:  ALL   (1 of 11)  
 
  830.1  
 
Los Angeles Times Takes Pro-Abortion News Bias Too Far in Opera Review

A copy editor had followed a Times' policy to replace all references to "pro-life" with "anti-abortion," without considering the context of the statement.

by Paul Nowak
LifeNews.com Editor
March 6, 2004

Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A biased editorial policy on abortion at the Los Angeles Times was taken too far when an entertainment section's review of Richard Strauss' opera "Die Frau Ohne Schatten" was called "an incomparably glorious and goofy anti-abortion paean."


"Its about children who aren't born yet screaming to be born -- not abortion," said Mark Swed, the Times music critic who wrote the review as a "pro-life" performance, referring to its celebratory depiction of life. "Somebody who didn't quite get it got a little bit too politically correct ... and we had a little breakdown in communications."


The play, translated as "The Woman Without a Shadow" in English, is about a half-human, half-divine woman who lacks a shadow, considered a symbol of fertility, and seeks one to save her husband from turning to stone.


A copy editor had followed a Times' policy to replace all references to "pro-life" with "anti-abortion," without considering the context of the statement. The change implied a bent on the abortion issue either in the play or in the reviewer's interpretation thereof -- an idea that Swed did not want conveyed in a piece bearing his name.


A correction issued by the newspaper only made matters worse. The following day, a correction read:


"A review of Los Angeles Opera's 'Die Frau Ohne Schatten' in Tuesday's Calendar section incorrectly characterized the work as 'anti-abortion.' In fact, there is no issue of abortion in the opera, which extols procreation."


Swed again demanded a correction, for now it appeared that he had mischaracterized the opera  a mistake that could affect his reputation as a critic.


Another correction was made the next day to exonerate Swed, stating, "As the correction should have made clear, the lead paragraph submitted by the reviewer was incorrectly changed to include the term anti-abortion."


"Every editor I talked to felt that this shouldn't have happened," said Swed. "This was just one person who didn't quite get it going too much by the rule book. It's a bit of a tempest in a tea pot."


Swed was satisfied, but the comedy of errors continued. The LA Observer reported that Jamie Gold, the Times reader representative, sent a memo to reporters criticizing their violation of another policy -- "Corrections will not assign blame."


"The Times' policy is that corrections simply correct the misinformation without assigning blame. The thinking is that readers don't care who made the mistake," reads Gold's memo. "Corrections should not say if it was an editing error or a reporting error, and should not imply fault to a wire service by mentioning it in the correction."


Last September the Chicago Tribune was criticized for changing an editorial by Bill Beckman, executive director of the Illinois Right to Life Committee, replacing every instance of "pro-life" with "anti-abortion."




David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
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  From:  carla5010   Mar-6 3:52 pm  
To:  David (DavidABrown)    (2 of 11)  
 
  830.2 in reply to 830.1  
 
Given the anti-choice terrorists' propensity to engage in revisionist linguistics, distortions, lies and even murder, that post is the height of hypocricy 
  
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  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Mar-6 11:10 pm  
To:  carla5010   (3 of 11)  
 
  830.3 in reply to 830.2  
 
Hi & Welcome to the forum!!

 

I thought that article was very informative as well.

 

God Bless you,
David A. Brown



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
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  From:  carla5010   Mar-6 11:59 pm  
To:  David (DavidABrown)    (4 of 11)  
 
  830.4 in reply to 830.3  
 
Thanks for the welcome. I have been here before, though. 
As for being "informative," the substance was less informative than, as I stated, the apparent hypocricy of the author.
 
  
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  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Mar-7 10:51 am  
To:  carla5010   (5 of 11)  
 
  830.5 in reply to 830.4  
 
Hi again.

 

I think it is informative that the L.A. Times thinks it has the right to rewrite the and then misrepresent the original works of others.

 

God Bless you,
David



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
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  From:  carla5010   Mar-8 5:28 pm  
To:  David (DavidABrown)    (6 of 11)  
 
  830.6 in reply to 830.5  
 
Not at all. Newspapers have policies on wording for just about anything, based on numerous issues, not the least of which is legal considerations. 
Now, back to the issue of the hypocricy of this Swed guy, who obviously finds editorial decisons of the editorial board to be much more disturbing than an attempt at an entire rewrite of plain English for the need of revisionist linguistics of the anti-choice movement, who have then used that same inflamatory language for assaults, terrorism and even murder.
 
  
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  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Mar-8 5:55 pm  
To:  carla5010   (7 of 11)  
 
  830.7 in reply to 830.6  
 
So now its the Pro-Life people that are terrorist and not the Murdering Abortion Doctors.

 

You are a revisionist arent you.

 

No matter you can utter your phrases all you want to the truth is still the truth and only the tiniest amount deceived people will latch onto your lies.

 

God Bless you,
David



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
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  From:  carla5010   Mar-8 6:36 pm  
To:  David (DavidABrown)    (8 of 11)  
 
  830.8 in reply to 830.7  
 
<<<<So now its the Pro-Life people that are terrorist and not the Murdering Abortion Doctors.>>>> 
Eh? Physicians who perform abortions are performing a legal, medical procedure, which thus does NOT meet the definition of murder, despite your attempt at revisionist linguistics. 

Now, on the other hand, murdering somebody by shooting them in the back in fron of their children, whom they were cooking dinner for, that certainly IS murder, and was, by the way, done by an anti-choice murderer from the "Army of God" domestic terrorist organization. 

And yes, such people ARE terrorists. Kopp, Rudolph, Silva, they are all terorrists. 

<<<<You are a revisionist arent you.>>>> 

Not at all. That is all factual information. Are you saying that the one who bombed the Atlanta Olympics was NOT a terrorist? Are you saying that those who seek to terrorize the medical community through the murder of physicians are not terrorists? Guess YOU are the revisionist here, seeking to excuse and explain away such terrorist acts. Next, are you going to tell us that the Atlanta Olympics were not bombed, that it is our fantasy? 

<<<<No matter you can utter your phrases all you want to the truth is still the truth and only the tiniest amount deceived people will latch onto your lies.>>>> 

Oh, you call me a liar, now? WHAT did I lie about? Why are you bearing false witness about me? Seems that YOU are the LIAR here. Hmm. Is that's what is known as "lying for jesus"?
 
  
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  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Mar-9 6:52 am  
To:  carla5010   (9 of 11)  
 
  830.9 in reply to 830.8  
 
If you wish to pretend that two isolated incidents equal a movement you are really desperate and really reaching.

 

Fortunately most people know that abortion is murder and I think even you know it, it is evident in the way you have to do the hard sell of your argument.

 

God Bless you,
David



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
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  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Mar-21 9:19 pm  
To:  ALL   (10 of 11)  
 
  830.10 in reply to 830.9  
 
More "Editorial Rewrites"

{front page of cnn.com}
Updated: 12:04 a.m. EST (05:04 GMT) March 22, 2004  
Airstrike kills Hamas chief


Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was killed in an apparent airstrike by Israeli forces Monday morning as he was being driven to a mosque, Palestinian sources told CNN. Yassin founded Hamas -- a fundamentalist Islamic organization whose military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has attacked Israeli civilian and military targets -- in 1987. The U.S. State Department and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization.

FULL STORY

{Actual Article - Finally this version agrees with the Jerusalem Post and other news versions.} 
Palestinians: Hamas founder killed in airstrike
Car hit by rockets as Yassin left mosque
Monday, March 22, 2004 Posted: 12:05 AM EST (0505 GMT) 

 
(CNN) -- Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was killed in an apparent airstrike by Israeli forces Monday morning as he was leaving a mosque, Hamas and Palestinian security sources told CNN.

 
 



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
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   From:  David (DavidABrown)    Apr-7 11:21 am  
To:  ALL   (11 of 11)  
 
  830.11 in reply to 830.10  
 
Source: cs.com April 07, 2004

U.S. Helicopter Blasts Iraq Mosque; 40 Killed [Main Page]

U.S. Hits Mosque Compound; 40 Said Killed [Article title]
By BASSEM MROUE and ABDUL-QADER SAADI 

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - U.S. Marines in a fierce battle for this Sunni Muslim stronghold fired rockets that hit a mosque compound filled with worshippers Wednesday, and witnesses said as many as 40 people were killed. Shiite-inspired violence spread to nearly all of the country. ..

Witnesses said a helicopter fired three missiles into the compound, destroying part of a wall surrounding the mosque but not damaging the main building. .. [Article body]

The fight began when a Marine vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired from the mosque, wounding five Marines, and a large U.S. force converged on it, Byrne said. 

Until the mosque attack, reports had at least 30 Americans and more than 150 Iraqis dead in fighting for Ramadi and Fallujah. ..


 



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org




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Edited 4/7/2004 11:24 pm ET by David (DavidABrown) 
  
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