CBS Qualifies Use of “Partial Birth Abortion” for Its Reporters
CBS News Senior Vice President, Standards and Special Projects Linda Mason, in an email to CBS staff:
"We thought that 'partial birth' is a color phrase for people who are anti-abortion rights," said Mason. "This is a procedure usually done after 20 weeks. Therefore, 'late term' is appropriate. Now, some colleagues have come back to me and questioned this because the name of the law before the Supreme Court is the 'Partial-Birth Abortion.' When people refer to the case, they should call it by the correct name. But a CBS reporter should call the procedure a 'late term abortion.'"
[img_assist|nid=1353|title=Special Series|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=89|height=100]CBS News Senior Vice President, Standards and Special Projects Linda Mason, in an email to CBS staff:
"We thought that 'partial birth' is a color phrase for people who are anti-abortion rights," said Mason. "This is a procedure usually done after 20 weeks. Therefore, 'late term' is appropriate. Now, some colleagues have come back to me and questioned this because the name of the law before the Supreme Court is the 'Partial-Birth Abortion.' When people refer to the case, they should call it by the correct name. But a CBS reporter should call the procedure a 'late term abortion.'"
Whether due to our petition or not, it looks like some members of the MSM are getting it: "partial birth abortion" is a rhetorical phrase, not a medical definition.
(Hat-tip to far-right blog, Newsbusters, for picking this up. Our readers will undoubtedly get a kick out of the comment string on their site. It's worth checking out.)