Partial-news distortion.(Beat the Press: The hand that rules the press ... rules the country--Judge Learned Hand )

On the evening of February 21,2006 we got another reminder that the talking heads of the establishment media all read from the same script.

"We turn now to the Supreme Court," began Elizabeth Vargas on ABC. "The justices will consider whether a federal law that bans so-called partial-birth abortion is un-Constitutional."

Over at NBC, Brian Williams asked if "Congress went too far when it banned a late-term abortion procedure that opponents of it call partial-birth abortion."

And on CBS, Bob Schieffer explained that, "The court agreed today to consider the Constitutionality of the ban that Congress imposed on a kind of late-term abortion that critics call partial-birth abortion."

Everyone got that? According to the men and women paid millions to read us the news, there's no such thing as partial-birth abortion--it's so-called partial-birth abortion.

Actually, "partial-birth abortion" is precisely what the critics call it. A nearly full-term baby enters the birth canal, its brains are removed so the skull can be collapsed, and the dead body is delivered. But, apparently, fair-minded people can't state that. It's just a certain late-term abortion procedure with no name.

Unfortunately for the talking heads, obfuscation is a lot harder in broadcast media. In print, you not only have access to subtly discrediting phrases like "so-called" and "opponents call," but you also have that great weapon of mass distortion--the scare quote, which signals that the words in question are dubious.