CAMPUS

The Heights Displays Arrogant Bias

Boston College’s bi-weekly newspaper, The Heights, displayed arrogant bias on Thursday in dealing with Respect Life Week. Respect Life Week, an effort by the Pro-Life Club to introduce Boston College students to the realities of abortion and other types of behavior that endanger the concept of life existing from conception to natural death, reached its climax on Tuesday’s “Cemetery of the Innocence.” The cemetery, which consisted of scores of handmade crosses in the dustbowl, were visible to students walking to and from classes as pro-life members handed out informational brochures on how abortion effects both the child and the mother. The protest was highly successful and attracted many students despite the bitter cold weather and whipping winds that made conditions nearly insufferable. The protest also sparked a small counter-protest for a brief period of time as members of the Women’s Health Initiative demonstrated adjacent to the cemetery. The counter-protest mustered perhaps half to one-third of the number of students the pro-life protest consisted of and lasted a mere two hours compared to the day-long pro-life demonstration.

Despite the resounding success of the cemetery in getting many students to rethink their preconceived notions about abortion, many Pro-Life leaders were “shocked” when they opened up The Heights to find that the main story on Thursday was not about the cemetery, but rather about the tiny counter-protest that achieved practically nothing. The bias of the article was evident not only in the pictures accompanying the article, but also in article’s first sentence. In that crucial first sentence, the reporter proclaimed that the day’s events had been merely dialogue about “women’s right to choose.” This is true in only a very narrow and twisted sense. If the reporter had bothered to ask any one of the pro-life members at the protest what the demonstration was about, he would have been told without question that the issue at stake was not choice, but life. The Pro-Life Club couldn’t care less about the supposed “right” of a woman to choose whether or not she want’s an abortion. They care about the life of the child inside her.

One of the most amazing parts of this article is that about three-quarters of it was dedicated to a counter-protest that lasted for a shorter duration of time and pulled less people than the original protest itself. I have never seen a newspaper give more attention to a counter-protest than the actual demonstration before but this type of bias is no stranger to the larger media. While The Heights has undoubtedly seen vast improvement over the past year, this type of bias is a definite turnoff to new freshmen. Although I am more than slightly biased in this respect, it is pretty evident that The Observer out-recruited The Heights in this year’s freshmen class. If you are an alternative newspaper on campus, struggle as hard as possible to keep your objectivity. People do notice and you will find that the freshmen that actually matter aren’t drawn by the layout of a newspaper alone. They also appreciate the content.