Just got this press release. What would a similar analysis of a Canadian paper show? We have had legal abortion for some time so there’s no need to shift public opinion in favour of it. I suspect that what we would see at very least is a tendency to ignore legitimate news that falls outside of the “cultural consensus.” The thing is that no news outlet is bias free and it’s important to remember that. I personally think they are all allowed to have their bias, provided they recognize it as such (LifeSiteNews has, er, a pro-life bias). There’s many a news outlet that believes they are purveyors of neutral information, whilst in reality they are pushing an agenda.

91% of Irish Times articles showed pro-abortion bias, 3-year forensic analysis finds “Irish Times coverage designed to shift public opinion, rather than to inform it” Life Institute says

A review of every article published in the Irish Times concerning the issue of abortion over a three-year period has uncovered “systematic, persistent, and overwhelming bias” in support of legalised abortion, the Life Institute has revealed today.

Amongst the key findings from the forensic review of the period between January 2013 and December 2015 were

Of the 312 articles published by the paper that were determined to have a bias, 91% were found to have exhibited a pro legalised abortion bias. (284 of 312 articles)

For news reporting the bias was most evident, with 98% of news reports taking a position supportive of legalised abortion. (205 of 209 articles)

76.7% of opinion pieces for the period showed a bias towards legalised abortion with just over 23% taking a pro-life position.  (79 against 24 articles)

The Irish Times published two articles a week on average that were biased in favour of abortion – making them more a campaigner than a news agency.

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