B8 terrace Review — Wednesday, October 31, 1990 Veteran publisher advises Pro- Lifers internal workings Brophy, Ferguson, Byfield: Strongest ally is the human conscience, by Michael Kelly People — in particular, children — used to get their sense of right and wrong, their code of ethics, primarily from their parents and to a lesser but still influential degree from the church. But in the past 40 years that has changed dramatically, Ted Byfield thinks. Kids now get the ABC’s of morality from the public school system and from the media. As a result, Byfield told a Terrace group last week, "What we’re seeing is evidence of a society in the full throes of disintegration." Byfield, the publisher and founder of B.C. Report magazine and a man who comes from a family that sports three generations of journalists, spoke at Happy Gang Centre Oct. 25 at the invita- tion of the Terrace Pro-Life Asso- ciation, drawing, in conjunction with a dinner, a crowd of about 150 people. He was there to explain to the group why it seems that news coverage of pro-choice and pro-life organizations and their points of view are out of balance, and what to do about it. "The family and ihe church have declined in authority, and that authority has been transferred to schools and the media," Byfield said, after reminding the crowd that the divorce rate in North America has gone from about 10 percent of marriages to more than half of them in four decades. "Parents’ authority has been eroded, the family is in a state of crisis." , Although public schooling is now a firmly established social conven- tion, Byfield noted that the concept of universal public schools has only been put into practice over the last 130 years. Previous to that, schools were operated by churches, and Christian religion retained considerable influence over what was taught in public schools until ‘the early 1900’s. About that time, Byfield said, the people who con- trolied public education policy began thinking of religion as "a detriment to humanity". The secu- lar theory of education began running iis course and the ultimate result, Byfield claimed, was the social revolution of the 1960's, what was popularly called at the time a counter-culture. And this is where the news media entered the lecture: the people who went to school at that time are the news- paper editors of today, carrying all the ethical, moral and intellectual predispositions that disintegrating families and secular educations could saddle them with. "The media are indoctrinated against the things that you and I believe in," Byfield stated, refer- ring to the anti-abortion move- Tent. He cited one instance as an example, in which the Washington Post gave a week-long run-up toa mass rally of feminists and later ran a single short piece on the inside of the newspaper to announce a much larger event involving pro-life activists. Byfield is convinced the news media can be manipulated and are manipu- lated extensively. "We can be moved around, and there’s a price to pay — we're breeding a non- reading, non-voting, non-participat- ing element in society. "They don’t believe in anything. They think [the news] is phoney, set up, contrived, directed, produc- ed... People have been alienated. It’s a recipe for a very, very, very of news media bad siluation." The bias of newspaper editors, particularly those who control the front page and editorial pages is "distinctly against pro-life", By- field said. He then provided some advice for the local group. He advised them to continue taking news releases in to local media outlets and to "keep up the pressure", protesting when events aren’t covered in the news. He also recommended "cultivating" ac- quaintance with reporters. "Some of them are pro-life, some of them _can think." Another, somewhat longer term method is to encourage youth who jean toward a pro-life philosophy to embark on careers in the media, he said, and he also urged the group to "create you own" media through newsletters and periodicals of other kinds. "Our strongest ally is the human conscience," Byfield concluded. "The knowledge that to destroy human Hfe is wrong, wrong, wrong. We must say it again and again and again until even the media realize it is true." Following Byfield’s presentation, Terrace Pro-Life member Isobel Brophy told the group. that they - were in the process of producing three 30-second radio commercials to broadcast messages against abortion, and asked for donations to help with production and adver- tising costs. ae Thankfully, the ‘econchox’ is history. The totally re-designed 1991 Tercel has the flowing, luxury-sedan styling you've always wanted. _ > Here is the aero-style design of the nineties you won't find anywhere else in its class. 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