In this chart, Media Matters highlights the findings of a study showing how evening and primetime news programs airing on cable news conveyed more inaccurate than accurate statements about abortion. The researchers found that Fox News aired 705 inaccurate statements about four abortion-related topics and 158 accurate ones, while CNN aired 54 inaccurate statements and 43 accurate statements. In contrast, on MSNBC, 87 statements were accurate while 37 were not.
Media Matters also found that antiabortion-rights topics received more coverage than topics in favor of abortion rights. Moreover, researchers noted that misleading videos targeting Planned Parenthood received considerable media attention for several months. As a result, abortion-rights supporters had to spend time debunking the videos' claims instead of addressing other abortion-rights topics (Larris/Kahn, Media Matters study, 6/1).


