For Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, attempts by media groups this week to accuse him of saying that forced ultrasounds are “just a cool thing for women” reveals not just bias on the part of reporters, but also laziness.
“There are at least some in the media [that are] biased and lazy,” the Republican lawmaker said Thursday in an interview with conservative radio host Dana Loesch. “And in this case, I think it’s a little of both.”
Walker’s remarks come after a left-leaning watchdog group, Right Wing Watch, stirred a brief media dustup earlier this week when it creatively edited comments from a separate interview between Loesch and the likely 2016 Republican presidential candidate.
In a radio interview last Friday, Walker defended a bill he signed in 2013 legislating that women seeking abortions must also be provided with ultrasounds. The Wisconsin Republican, who has two adult sons, also praised the technology behind ultrasounds.
“Most people I talk to, whether they’re pro-life or not, I find people all the time who’ll get out their iPhone and show me a picture of their grandkids’ ultrasound and how excited they are, so that’s a lovely thing. I think about my sons are 19 and 20, you know we still have their first ultrasound picture. It’s just a cool thing out there [emphasis added],” he said.
“We just knew if we signed that law, if we provided the information, that more people if they saw that unborn child would, would make a decision to protect and keep the life of that unborn child,” he added.
Right Wing Watch soon repackaged his remarks and media groups, including Salon, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, the Huffington Post, Jezebel, Politico, the Week and Mother Jones, followed its lead, rushing to report that Walker had said that mandatory ultrasounds are “just a cool thing for women.”
Walker appeared amused Thursday that reporters had missed the mark so badly.
“[W]hat they said is not at all [true],” he said. “And then you had so many of these left-wing media outlets repeat the same misquote over and over again and sometimes embellish it even more.”
“I said ultrasounds are pretty cool,” he added Thursday. “That for my kids, Matt and Alex, we still have their ultrasound pictures from when they were babies. They’re 19 and 20 years old now, and I also mentioned that for a few friends of mine who I know got grandkids now, they show me on their cell phones images that were sent from their families, from their own kids showing them the ultrasound pictures, and they show it off. It’s pretty cool — it’s the wonders of that technology.”
The rush to attribute the false quote to Walker likely stems from media’s lingering anger over the 2013 pro-life legislation that he signed, he said.
“I think they realize, when people actually hear what’s going on and they can’t win on the left on an issue, they exaggerate things, they make things up, and they take them out of context,” he said. “Here I pointed out, as I pointed out before I signed the law, I said, ‘Who’s opposed to an ultrasound?’ They tried to claim it was a certain type, I said, ‘No — our law says that before someone has that procedure, they have to be given access to an ultrasound.’ ”
