Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Crickets / Music Anti-Choice Organizations Among Potential Beneficiaries of Lilith Fair's "Choose Your Charity" Campaign
Posted by Jessica Hopper on Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 7:57 PM
- http://www.facebook.com/lilithfairtour
Minneapolis and Indianapolis fans are given the option of supporting Metro Women's Center and Indianapolis Life Center, respectively—institutions whose approach to women's reproductive health services (especially birth control and abortion) is guided by an explicitly anti-choice agenda. Several other cities, including Atlanta and Seattle, have potential beneficiaries that offer so-called abortion alternatives and faith-driven pregnancy counseling.
When asked to comment about this apparent change in tack for the historically pro-choice Lilith Fair, the festival organizers had this to say via their publicist at Nettwerk, Danielle Romeo: "The primary focus of the selection process will be on those organizations that provide shelter to women in need. We want the fans to have a voice in the selection, and we will strongly consider all feedback on these selected charities when making the final decisions."
I pressed Nettwerk CEO and Lilith cofounder Terry McBride about the selection process for Lilith Fair's charities. "The seeding at the start was done with a basic digital search in each market of woman's charities," he said. "It's not perfect. Nor could it be, as we simply don't have the local expertise even within our own city of Vancouver." McBride insists that the intent of the contest is to have each community help Lilith select a worthy recipient. The "seeding" he refers to, aka the initial vetting step, consisted of looking online for woman-focused organizations with federal tax ID numbers. He claims no other criteria were employed.
When I contacted the heads and marketing directors of several Lilith-selected organizations in Portland and Austin, they said they hadn't even been told they were candidates. The director of A Beacon of Hope, a "pregnancy and relationship resources" center near Atlanta that counsels pregnant women on the "spiritual consequences" of abortion, among other things, didn't know what Lilith Fair was and declined to comment.
McBride insists that the Lilith organization hasn't changed its principles and that it didn't "purposefully" select the anti-choice groups featured on the Facebook voting site. He says the organizers haven't even read the mission statements that appear there. "What is posted are the results of the most cursory search, and it's really up to each community to help us decide," he says. "We aren't the experts, and so it needs to be up to people working in those communities."
Ultimately, though, the Lilith organization will choose each city's beneficiary, not Facebook voters. According to the festival's Web site, "The Lilith founders—Sarah McLachlan, Terry McBride, Dan Fraser and Marty Diamond—will hand pick the local charity winners from the top three charities with the most votes in each city." Within the next week, an additional feature will be added to the Facebook voting page so that organizations not currently featured can self-submit for consideration.
Comments (18)
Showing 1-18 of 18
Since this is the CHICAGO Reader, it seems germane to note what choices the pulldown menu offers for CHICAGO.
As long as you're covering this interesting issue, why are you requiring me to become a fan of Lilith Fair on Facebook in order to find out how this story is particularly relevant to the vast majority of your readers? Are the Chicago organizations on the menu not anti-choice?
Why isn't there even a mention that Chicago is part of the festival's itinerary?
like
dislike
Alan Barstow,
Please relax.
The Reader routinely runs all sorts of pieces that are not Chicago-specific. If it wasn't likely to offend your prudish sensibilities, I'd steer you towards Savage Love as an outstanding example.
Jessica Hopper appears to have broken an interesting story about something that affects women nationwide that hasn't been reported elsewhere. Good job, Reader!
PP
Alan! You are back! And you have inspired a little poem:
Oh, the hate-ray of Alan Barstow!
You are so militant
and So local
so vocal
on every story I write.
He says his glasses
would deflect the hate ray
back into his dome
but, clearly,
it shines through
CHICAGO UBER ALLES!
Thats just from me, to you, Alan.
Thank you so much for the constructive "input," PP.
As you can see from my original comment, I also noted that this story is "interesting." I'm not sure why it makes me a prude to want to know which Chicago charities are listed in the pulldown menu, or if any were at all. This is a basic fact that should be in the reporting, seeing this story is being published as part of the Reader.
Furthermore, this story was actually "broken" nationally on Monday, when a Facebook group was created to address the issue:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lilith-Fair-…
Hopper's story re-states the information on this page, and adds quotes from national sources. Thus, my original question: What about Chicago? What's happening here?
Yours truly,
Alan
Mine truly,
Since this is the Chicago READER, it seems germane to note what choices the pulldown menu offers for READERS.
As long as you're nitpicking this interesting issue, why are you requiring me to log on to Facebook in order to find out how your "input" is particularly relevant to the vast majority of Reader readers?
Hopper's story expands upon the information from a Facebook page, and adds quotes from national sources. Thus, my original point: What other legitimate news source has broken this story?
What's happening here? Get that CHICAGO #1! foam finger out of your face and reread the article: women in need of information, counseling, healthcare services, et cetera are being provided with false information, poor counseling, and a lack of healthcare services by a groups passing themselves off as legitimate healthcare providers, and they might just be getting some major funding from a supposedly pro-choice, pro-woman business that has apparently not done its due diligence. That's what's happening, and it affects people everywhere. Chicago is still part of everywhere. Shall I draw you a map?
Would you have such a bug up your ass about this story if it had been reported in the CHICAGO Tribune or the CHICAGO Sun-Times? Perhaps you really should be writing to Savage Love. Pervert.
PP
Still not sure why you're getting angry. Aren't these forums meant for critiques and comments on the articles?
I already said that it's an interesting and important story. I'm interested in what Chicago organizations Lilith Fair has chosen, because I live here, and my roommate was thinking about going to see one of her favorite singers, Loretta Lynn.
Neither she nor I have a Facebook page, so we can't check for ourselves to see if there are any anti-choice organizations on the pulldown menu.
The Chicago choices are all legitimate and great orgs that support women. I would have reported if they weren't.
"Anti-choice?"
Don't you mean pro-life? Nice journalistic impartiality. You could have at least used the term anti-abortion groups.
But, I see where you're going here, you're dropping impartiality and trying to be provocative instead of just reporting and letting the reader make up their own mind.
So, if I were an alleged journalist writing for a newspaper on this subject, I would subject the readers to my particular point of view and label everyone in the article who is pro-choice as pro-death. How would that sound?
I would encourage you going back to J-school for a few refresher courses.
Mike Timble,
This piece is posted on the "Blog" section of the Reader, alongside countless other opinion-rich pieces.
Regardless, though, is "anti-choice" really an incorrect description or a false statement of the facts? No.
PP
Well, anti-choice is in fact an incorrect description. "Pro-life" in fact represents one choice, the choice for life, as opposed for death.
As far as the rest of the article is concerned, it's amazing that the author spent so much time worrying about the fact that organizations which serve women, and serve them well by providing them with an alternative to murder, might possibly get funding from the Lilith Fair. What is the concern here?
Pro-choice and pro-life are both propaganda terms and killing an embryo is not murder.
CPCs harm all pregnant women. Pro-lifers should be disgusted that these people are lying to women (for example, withholding pregnancy test results) instead of arguing their position. This article could be revised to explain that "anti-choice" is actually a misleading term for CPCs: in actuality, they just lie. http://bit.ly/abtcpcs
Here is another fantastic piece about the harm CPCs do to pregnant women whether they wish to terminate or have a baby. http://bit.ly/cpcst
PP-
First, just because a piece is posted on the internet as a news story, doesn't mean I as a reader, shouldn't expect journalistic standards.
But, perhaps you're right. So-called "journalists" these days can't be bothered to even attempt the pretense of objectivity. But why try to hide it? Why not label the piece as an opinion piece?
At least the people posting in the comments section are honest about their views. I can respect that.
Perhaps I'm just a crabby old dinosaur of a man because I like to read facts and make up my own mind. Maybe that's why I'm less bothered about you or your opinion on the subject, and more bothered by the writer's and her editor's lack of ability to craft an article that is even close to objective.
BTW: Would you consider Planned Parenthood a legit provider of women's health services?
You might want to check into this enlightening series of undercover videos that seem to be leading to a legal investigation.
http://bit.ly/5ufeLp
OOPS!!!
P.S. My dear FGFM, killing a baby is killing a baby. Fetus, embryo, baby, these words all represent the same thing--human life.
* " institutions whose approach to women's reproductive health services (especially birth control and abortion) is guided by an explicitly anti-choice agenda."
"Anti-choice" = uninformative inflammatory propaganda term. Like saying "pro-abortion baby-killers ..."
* "so-called abortion alternatives"
They obviously are either alternatives to abortion or they're not. "So-called" is weaselly.
* "and faith-driven pregnancy counseling"
Terrifying! Obviously, ideology- and sales-driven abortion counseling is the only choice allowed women.
So, let's recap.
1) Women shouldn't have choices other than abortion
2) Lilith supporters shouldn't have a choice of which charities to support
YAY CHOICE!
Whateva.
Can we stop this Stalinism? "Abortion is the only choice and all competition must be shut down" is so '90s Culture War. Let’s move on, shall we?
sueshe
" institutions whose approach to women's reproductive health services (especially birth control and abortion) is guided by an explicitly anti-choice agenda."
"Anti-choice" = uninformative inflammatory propaganda term. Like saying "pro-abortion baby-killers ..."
"so-called abortion alternatives"
They obviously are either alternatives to abortion or they're not. "So-called" is weaselly.
"and faith-driven pregnancy counseling."
Terrifying! Obviously, ideology- and sales-driven abortion counseling is the only choice allowed women.
So, let's recap.
1) Women shouldn't have choices other than abortion
2) Lilith supporters shouldn't have a choice of which charities to support
YAY CHOICE!
Whateva.
Can we stop this Stalinism? "Abortion is the only choice and all competition must be shut down" is so '90s Culture War. Let’s move on, shall we?
It should be, but it is no longer amazing how the Left has successfully preverted even the language. "Anti-choice"? What choice? Choose abortion and you have made the correct choice. Choose to not have an abortion and now you are anti-choice. Orwell described it perfectly. The perversion of the language with the intent of speaking only FOR the Party. The fact is, the so-called "Pro-Choice" is in fact the Anti-Choice. Of course we don't expect linguistic integrity to account for anything in the world of Leftist idiology.
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