Alexandra Desanctis at National Review has a new article exposing Kate Smith, a reporter for CBS News as an abortion activist pretending to be a journalist.
She writes, “Smith, a correspondent at CBS News, claims to be a reporter. She is employed not by an opinion journal but by CBS News, one of the “Big Three” broadcast television networks and a prominent mainstream journalistic outfit. You could be forgiven for believing that CBS might employ a reporter to cover abortion policy. After all, it’s a topic that requires journalistic skill and nuance. It’s one of the most hotly debated political issues in American public life, a question on which Americans have been harshly split for decades. It deserves reporting that reflects both this intense, deeply rooted polarization and the complexity and moral gravity of the subject.”
Desanctis notes that Smith was the first reporter to interview Planned Parenthood’s new president, Alexis McGill Johnson, an interview that started with a congratulations from Smith. Desanctis notes that Smith acted similarly in an, “exclusive, uncritical interview with Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, providing her with a platform to expound on her organization’s lawsuits against states that are attempting to limit unnecessary procedures, including elective abortion, during the coronavirus outbreak.” You can read her full article here.
Smith’s pinned tweet at the top of her Twitter account links to her interview with Alexis McGill Johnson, an interview that happened last July. Her tweet lacks any semblance of neutrality, stating, “Watch my interview with Planned Parenthood’s new leader, Alexis McGill Johnson. It’s hard to overstate what a critical moment this is for abortion access. Johnson says she’s up for the challenge.”
Watch my interview with Planned Parenthood’s new leader, Alexis McGill Johnson.
It’s hard to overstate what a critical moment this is for abortion access. Johnson says she’s up for the challenge.https://t.co/8ixsUSWP2Q pic.twitter.com/vQIjvPo5In
— Kate Smith (@byKateSmith) July 30, 2019
Mary Kate Knorr, the Executive Director of Illinois Right to Life wrote on her Facebook of an experience with Kate Smith, referencing the National Review article, “Kate Smith followed me around for a full day back in the fall, supposedly for a piece she was doing on our pro-life training tour. A couple months later, she used the footage in a piece that announced Planned Parenthood was opening a regional mega-facility along the Illinois-Missouri border. My interviews, which she gathered under a different context, made her story look ‘balanced.’ I’m grateful the National Review wrote this piece.”
LISTEN MORE: Kristan Hawkins’ talks about bias in the media against the pro-life media in her ‘Explicitly Pro-Life’ podcast.
