From: akbloom@aplcenmp.apl.jhu.edu (Keith Bloom)
Subject: Re: NBC News Blackout on Black Senatorial Candidate
Keywords: slavery, pro-life
Organization: The Johns Hopkins University
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 06:25:51 GMT

nyikos@math.scarolina.edu (Peter Nyikos) writes:

>Last night, NBC Nightly News carried information about women and minority
>candidates.  It said that there were 11 women candidates for the US Senate,
>and over a hundred (I forget the exact number) for the House.  When it
>came the turn of Blacks, however, all we were told was that there were
>approximately 60 candidates for the House.

Mr. Nyikos' article seems to have been caught in a time warp, since he
posted it the night before the election and it hasn't reached this
site until today (November 6).

>But there is at least one Black candidate for the US Senate.  If there
>is only one, it is easy to see why NBC news chose not to even hint
>at his existence.

As someone else has already pointed out, there were at least two:
Alan Keyes in Maryland and Carol Moseley Braun in Illinois.  If NBC
did indeed fail to mention any Black candidates for U.S. Senate, it
was a grievous fault; but Mr. Nyikos cannot plausibly claim that the
oversight was due to Keyes' pro-life views, because Braun is decidedly
pro-choice.

>Alan L. Keyes, the Republican Party candidate for the U.S. Senate
>seat from Maryland that is up for election, is pro-life.  To make
>matters worse for him as far as media coverage is concerned, he
>is running against an incumbent who is a woman and is radically
>pro-choice.  

To make matters even worse for him, the Republican National Committee
decided to cut off financial support for his campaign, on the grounds
that he had no chance of winning.  It's hard to get much media
attention if you have no money and if your own party doesn't think
you're a viable candidate.

There was a televised debate between Keyes and Mikulski on PBS, so
Keyes had some opportunity to present his views.

>The state of Maryland also has the most radically pro-choice laws
>on aboriton, outstripping Roe v. Wade and even FOCA, the so-called
>Freedom of Choice Act.

It doesn't outstrip Roe v. Wade; it falls short of Roe by including
provisions for parental notification.  (Those provisions can be waived
under some circumstances.)  I'd like to see some documentation for the
assertion that Maryland has "the most radically pro-choice laws."
What are the abortion laws in New York, California, and Oregon (which
passed a pro-choice referendum a couple of years ago)?

>And Alan Keyes is a committed pro-lifer, who has evidently given the
>matter far more thought than George Bush has, because he has voiced his
>opinions in long thoughtful articles on the subject.

Anyone who has thought about abortion for more than thirty seconds has
given the matter far more thought than George Bush.

Alan Keyes is indeed unabashedly pro-life, and is also extremely
articulate.  His views are unlikely to win him much support in
Maryland, where the *opponents* of Question 6 (the pro-choice
referendum) made virtually no attempt to argue the pro-life position.
Instead, they claimed that the law was so flawed that it was in the
interests of *pro-choice* people to oppose it.

Even so, the question won with more than 60% of the popular vote.


Keith
Newsgroups: talk.abortion