{"id":207347,"date":"2019-07-25T11:30:17","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T16:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=207347"},"modified":"2024-09-20T12:40:27","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T17:40:27","slug":"newsweek-abortion-activist-claim-live-action-censored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/newsweek-abortion-activist-claim-live-action-censored\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsweek claims Live Action lies about big tech censorship – and has no proof to back it up"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An opinion piece<\/a> written by an author associated with radical pro-abortion left wing groups and published by Newsweek is more of the same when it comes to\u00a0biased media outlets<\/a>\u00a0which ignore facts regarding the social media censorship of conservatives and pro-life groups<\/a>. The piece’s author, Sharon Kann, describes her position<\/a> as the “abortion rights and reproductive health program director at Media Matters.” Kann attempts to debunk Live Action president Lila Rose’s claims that the pro-life organization has been suppressed and censored — but she does so without offering proof of her assertions. Kann fails\u00a0to mention even one document or\u00a0e-mail exchange<\/a> between Live Action and various members of Big Tech to prove her case. She also fails to examine the ongoing advertising freedom<\/a> given to pro-abortion groups and Planned Parenthood on Twitter, while Live Action is still banned, after four years, from advertising on the platform.<\/p>\n

To find these facts would have taken little effort. But finding facts wasn’t what Kann set out to do.<\/p>\n

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Sharon Kann pens inaccurate Newsweek piece on social censorship of pro-life groups<\/p><\/div>\n

Kann — who regularly refers<\/a> to pro-lifers as “anti-choice” on her (non-censored) social media accounts<\/a>\u00a0— began her claims by writing, “Earlier this month, at an event lauded by the Trump administration as a “social media summit,” a group of right-wing media firebrands<\/strong> and conspiracy theorists<\/strong> gathered at the White House to air their grievances. Chief among them: alleged censorship of conservative views by tech giants, most notably Facebook and Twitter.”\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kann\u00a0quickly attacked, claiming Live Action has “weaponized misinformation about abortion” and promoted “inaccurate and sensationalized\u00a0claims<\/a>\u00a0about abortion later in pregnancy and\u00a0nonexistent<\/a>\u00a0links between abortion and breast cancer.” It’s easy enough on social media to smear an organization without offering any proof. But this is Newsweek<\/em> we’re talking about, which is supposed to have some form of journalistic standards beyond baseless and nonspecific accusations. Kann failed to point out even a single instance of a factual inaccuracy from Live Action. Instead, she linked to pro-abortion outlets like Vice as her “proof,”overlooking where Vice admitted<\/a> that, in the case of Pinterest’s ban<\/a> of Live Action, Pinterest “did not elaborate on the specific posts that got Live Action banned, and wouldn’t say the types of health misinformation that Live Action was posting.”<\/p>\n

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Lila Rose Tweet on Pinterest blocking Live Action<\/p>\n

Kann continued:<\/p>\n

Such claims of rampant anti-conservative censorship may animate supporters and drive fundraising campaigns. But the facts and hard evidence consistently tell a different story: These allegations are as inaccurate as they are self-serving.<\/em><\/p>\n

To which “facts and\u00a0hard evidence” would Kann be referring? We have no idea, because she failed to list any such facts or hard evidence. Instead, she\u00a0pointed to a series of Media Matters studies (published in 2018<\/a> and repeated in 2019<\/a>) which she claimed “conclusively debunked” the idea of censorship of conservative groups. The linked pages didn’t mention Live Action or Lila Rose. Kann then pointed to another Media Matters study<\/a>\u00a0of “abortion-related coverage on Facebook” which simply\u00a0revealed<\/a>\u00a0that Live Action was a prominent presence on the social media site. Again, Kann failed to address any of Live Action’s censorship claims, previously<\/a> summarized by Live Action News as follows:<\/p>\n