EDITORIALS; "And a Big Smile Could Be Discerned".(fetal rights)

Although there will be excellent attendance at NRLC's annual convention July 1-3, naturally with a circulation of 360,000+, most readers of this edition of National Right to Life News will not be at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, Virginia. Yet I always have the attendees in mind as we cobble together the many news stories, opinion pieces, photos, inspiring quotations, and educational pieces that make up the pre-convention edition.

Partly that's because over the space of three days and four nights I will have the wonderful opportunity to speak with many attendees. Inevitably, part of those conversations, which often extend far into the night, will reflect the content of NRL News.

So when we compose the paper's contents we know that I (and so many others from NRLC) will be discussing with convention goers the issues raised. I try to envision each and every one of you as if you and I were sitting around the kitchen table sorting through the trials and triumphs of this great Movement.

Last Friday, as I started this editorial, I happened to read a review of a new movie coming out that day. Without getting into specifics, the reviewer's cultural insularity was amazing, even by the standards of those who run in the Media Elite circles. I know that if we ever talked, she wouldn't have a clue why massive numbers of people would find her favorable review patently offensive, not only because she praised parts that didn't warrant praise, but more for her stunning lack of knowledge about the kinds of people she so smugly ridiculed in her review.

Her sarcasm made me think of how the great people who comprise our Movement have been treated over the years. But what also came to mind is how far we've come since 1990 when a massive NRLC-sponsored "Rally for Life" was treated as if it were almost invisible by the Washington Post.

Twelve months before, that same newspaper showered extraordinary coverage on a rally sponsored by NOW. According to the Los Angeles Times's Staff Writer David Shaw, "[W]hen abortion-rights forces rallied in Washington a year earlier, the Post gave it extraordinary coverage, beginning with five stories in the five days leading up to the event, including a 6,550-word cover story in the paper's magazine on the abortion battle the day of the event. The Post even published a map, showing the march route, road closings, parking, subway, lost and found and first-aid information."

And, just for good measure, the next day the Post published another five stories, including a front-page story with three photos! In his 1990 pathbreaking four-part series on "Abortion and the Media," Shaw contrasted that with the Post's coverage of the Rally for Life: a single short story buried in the Metro section.