Almost Comically Unbalanced.(abortion laws)

The news media "elite" is probably as much out of touch with the majority of Americans today as it was 15 years or 20 years ago, if not more so. The differences of opinion between reporters and the general public on many issues remain stark and troubling.

Nowhere is that gap more prominent than on the issue of abortion. One obvious question: is the chasm closing or growing?

Veteran pro-lifers will remember a genuinely landmark 1981 study conducted by L. Robert Lichter, who was then with George Washington University, and Stanley Rothman, then of Smith College. The team surveyed 240 journalists at some of the top media outlets in the country.

The study results were published in the American Enterprise Institute's journal Public Opinion. Lichter and Rothman subsequently published the extensive results in their book, The Media Elite. It generated a torrent of comment.

One of the most significant findings was that not half, not two-thirds, not three-quarters, but 90% of reporters who worked for these elite outlets favored abortion.

Fast-forward nearly 15 years to 1995. Rothman and Amy Black polled the news media as part of an examination of nine "elite" groups in the United States. They surveyed "reporters and editors of major national newspapers, news magazines and wire services." The results were published in the spring 2001 issue of The Public Interest.

They found that things HAD changed. Now virtually all of those surveyed - - 97% - - agreed that "it is a woman's right to decide whether or not to have an abortion." Eighty-four percent agreed strongly with this statement.