If you have been around newsrooms for several decades, especially after the arrival of the Internet, you know that Donald Trump didn’t invent the term “fake news.” Yes, he grabbed it and ran with it. Big time.
Basically, what Orange Man Bad wanted was news coverage that praised all things Trump and, whenever possible, attacked his enemies. This is the flip side of mainstream news offerings that conservatives criticized during the whole Barack “The One” Obama era, when some press people had a thrill-up-the-leg or messiah-esque approach to news.
This preach-to-the-choir ethos is, I believe, one form of “fake news” and I started hearing journalists expressing concerns about it back in the 1980s. Journalists also, as newspaper economics soured, began worrying out loud about news coverage of powerful businesses that resembled cheerleading for the home team. Many feared the line between news and public-relations was in danger.
Then there was the whole “news you can use” phenomenon. The idea is that newsrooms need to offer “news” that is, in reality, offers handy, cheerful, useful, positive guides to local services and worthy causes.
With all of that as a backdrop, let’s look at a recent headline in The Olympian, a mainstream McClatchy chain newspaper up in the deep-blue Pacific Northwest: “Anti-abortion ‘fake clinics’ exist throughout WA. Here’s what they are and how to spot them.”
Read this article and then ask: WHAT IS THIS?
While the scare quotes around ‘fake clinics’ provide a smidgen of editorial distancing, it’s clear — if you look at the sources for this article — that the newspaper is cheering for the pro-abortion-rights activists who are using that term.
But first, WHAT IS THIS? Here is what this article is NOT. It is not an editorial. It is not an opinion column. It is not even a news “analysis” feature.
I would argue that this is a “news you can use” feature for readers who want to attack — that word can be used in several ways — religious and nonprofit groups opposed to abortion and, in particular, crisis pregnancy centers. If you have scanned small headlines deep inside mainstream news outlets, you may know that some of these centers, and the churches that support them, have recently experienced vandalism and even arson.
Let’s start with some of the material at the beginning, just before the fall of Roe v. Wade, which includes some news hooks:
With the U.S. Supreme Court on the verge of possibly overturning two landmark abortion rights cases by the end of this month, a new far-left abortion rights group called Jane’s Revenge has begun targeting and vandalizing anti-abortion institutions, including several in Washington. …
Washington would most likely remain a bastion of women’s rights, with Washington Speaker of the House Laurie Jinkins assuring to “maintain a safety net of abortion providers and enhanced protections for the right to choose in Washington,” in a statement on May 3. The Olympia City Council also unanimously passed a request this week to make Olympia a sanctuary city for protections of reproductive health.
Now we reach the “fake clinic” hook.
… Jane’s Revenge has specifically been targeting a specific type of organization that exists in Washington and infringes upon abortion rights: places that have been labeled “fake abortion clinics” or “fake clinics.”
A “fake clinic,” also known as a crisis pregnancy center, is a clinic that advertises services similar to an abortion clinic, but with a different agenda. Instead of performing abortion services, the staff talks women through their options but ultimately attempt to discourage them from having an abortion.
Jane’s Revenge declared it is “open season” on anti-abortion organizations earlier this week, including fake clinics, specifically highlighting three towns in Washington: Olympia, Lynnwood and Vancouver.
Now, we need to hear from some neutral experts, providing balanced, accurate information about the services provided by these organizations. Right?
Fake clinics are often set up close to abortion clinics, according to Planned Parenthood, and advertise a range of services such as STD testing, but more often than not do not provide any substantive health care services. Although not outwardly offering abortion services, the clinics will advertise solutions for unintended pregnancies, pregnancy consultation and post-abortion care.
Care Net of Puget Sound, a crisis pregnancy center in Tacoma that has been identified by the website Expose Fake Clinics, acknowledges abortion as an option on its website but does not offer it at its clinic, instead offering parent support programs and information about adoption.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit aimed at stopping the spread of misinformation and hate, estimated that 37% of Google map results for abortion clinics presented anti-abortion providers instead of actual abortion clinics.
So where are these clinics?
The newspaper, turning to The Fake Clinic Database, offers a “news you can use” list of addresses for those who might want to locate and, well, visit these organizations.
Finally, there is more “news you can use” info about the goals and services of these organizations, care of a neutral source on these issues.
Planned Parenthood provides a list on its website of signs that could indicate whether an abortion clinic is real or not:
* The clinic is listed online as a “pregnancy resource center” or “pregnancy help center.”
* The clinic advertises free pregnancy tests, abortion counseling, and other services but does not help provide an abortion. …
* They say that abortion is not safe and can lead to cancer or infertility. Neither of these claims is true, according to Planned Parenthood.
Oh, and one more thing:
* Workers at the clinic try to pressure you into continuing the pregnancy and sometimes offer items like baby clothes.
* Religion is brought into the conversation surrounding abortion. Workers at the clinic say judgmental things about sex before marriage and the LGBTQ+ community.
Need to know how to report a “fake clinic” to the proper legal authorities in an attempt to close it down? The professionals at The Olympian are happy to provide useful contact points for that work.
Is there any need to talk to leaders and volunteers from the local Catholic archdiocese or from Black, White and Latino evangelical and Pentecostal congregations that tend to support crisis pregnancy centers, asking why they do the work that they do, while confirming what services they do or do not provide? Do any of them, for example, offer free ultrasound tests? Are any connected to local doctors who do pro bono work with mothers facing crisis pregnancies?
Of course not. Questions of this kind are not appropriate in a news you can use feature of this kind.
Can anyone imagine a newspaper feature about centers of this kind that was strictly positive, with zero information drawn from interviews with valid sources that oppose them and defend abortion rights?
One more time: WHAT IS THIS article? What is the accurate label for this genre of journalism?
FIRST IMAGE: Graphic from a YouTube video focusing on ‘News You Can Use’ trends and online shopping.