Liveaction.org Pro-Life Videos Get Biased Media Attention - Young Conservatives On the Loose

UCLA student and pro-life activist Lila Rose, 20, takes undercover video at Planned Parenthood clinics.

Liveaction.org has now posted six YouTube videos showing Planned Parenthood aides counseling a girl, posing as a 14 year-old, on how to get an abortion without parental permission, and worse, counseling her to not tell anyone else about her 31 year-old "boyfriend." (See the most recent video here.) Each video caused a stir among pro-life advocates, yet the mainstream media, ever in the pocket of abortion advocates, seems to have ignored these videos. At least until now.

The Los Angeles Times deigned to write an article about Liveaction.org and about the problem the organization's videos pose for Planned Parenthood. I find several interesting points about the LA Times article. First, as you might expect, the article is heavily slanted against Liveaction.org and against Lila Rose - the UCLA student who co-created Liveaction.org and also who poses as the 14 year-old pregnant girl in the videos. From the get-go, the LA Times article headline reads:

Antiabortion Movement Gets a New-Media Twist

The mainstream media never calls pro-life advocates pro-life, but antiabortion. Just as the mainstream media never calls pro-marriage advocates pro-marriage, but anti-gay marriage. The use of the pejorative sets the tenor of the article. In effect, it broadcasts that Liveaction.org is another group trying to take away "abortion rights." What it doesn't tell us is the purpose of videos in the first place, to uncover and undermine Planned Parenthood's mission to provide abortions at all costs. How would the public respond if the LA Time printed this headline instead?

Liveaction.org Uncovers Planned Parenthood Hiding Statutory Rape

It's definitely more accurate and would certainly grab attention. Yet, this sort of headline would only occur from a decidedly conservative media outlet, never within the mainstream media.

The Liveaction.org campaign has had an effect on Planned Parenthood:

Last month, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to suspend a grant worth nearly $300,000 to Planned Parenthood....

Last year, after the Indiana videos were posted on Rose's website,...the nurse's aide seen on the tape had been fired. A second Planned Parenthood staffer, in Indianapolis, resigned....

A grand jury is investigating whether Planned Parenthood violated the law, said Mario Massillamany, a spokesman for the prosecutor of Marion County, where Indianapolis is located.

The Future of Conservatism
On a second interesting point, the LA Times reported this quote about Lila Rose:

"There is this stereotype of who we pro-life leaders are, and for the most part it would be white middle-aged religious men trying to impose their will on women," said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition. "So now with Lila, you bring this young, fresh college student that completely blows any stereotypes away. No one is going to accuse Lila of being mean, vindictive and harsh." (LA Times)

What I find interesting is the trend of many of the young and upcoming generation away from modern social liberalism, such as abortion advocacy. Lila Rose represents a new generation of social conservatism that stymies the mainstream media.

In another example, last week news stories exploded about Carrie Prejean, first runner up in the Miss USA pageant. Prejean answered a loaded question about same sex marriage with the decidedly non-PC view that marriage is between a man and a woman. She showed, on national media, that a young woman wasn't bamboozled by all the propoganda about same sex marriage. Because of Caarie Pejean, the mainstream media lost the edge in its almost universal acceptance of same sex marriage, first, because it could hardly paint Carrie Prejean as an evil conservative, and second, because Perez Hilton, by attacking Carrie Prejean, showed the country what true hatred and bigotry are.

I've had many students in my classes who surprise me by expressing conserative views. I'm impressed by their activism when it comes to conservative values. One of my old students spends a considerable amount of time campaigning on behalf of conservative politicians and conservative ideals.

Another young student surprised me when she showed up to class last November, sporting a conservative candidate's bumber stickers strategically stuck to various parts of her body. This was truly a new "face" of conservatism I hadn't even guessed at - a far cry from the usual conservative stereotype of old white guys dressed in stuffy suits.

Others in my classes are unafraid to take up the conservative point of view, perhaps because I (unlike most of academe) don't slam them for having such views, or more likely because conservatism does indeed have an appeal with the younger generation and does represent a perfectly legitimate ideology.

I'm glad conservatism has advocates such as my students, Lila Rose or Carrie Prejean. Here's to a new generation of conservatives who can see past the mainstream media muddle and represent America's core values.