A sign for The New York Times hangs above the entrance to its building, May 6, 2021 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

Once again, Republicans are lying, and some in the press corps are complicit. This time, the lies come from Republicans trying to spin their support for life-begins-at-conception legislation. The press is complicit because their first instinct is to print the lies without checking the facts, without providing context, without even the irony that this moment so richly conjures.

To be fair, a few got it right from the start, while others had to do follow ups after the damage was done by providing the needed clarifications. But have they learned nothing? So long as the first story is simply a platform for Republican lies, it’s no wonder so many Americans are confused at best, believing falsehoods at worst.

It’s been over 11 days since the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that declared frozen embryos are children. At first, the controversial ruling got very little attention, with just a handful of local Alabama news outlets doing stories. But after Alabama clinics began canceling in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures, the ruling, the extremist chief court justice who authored it and IVF itself became big news across the country. That fervor sent Republicans into full damage control mode.

Since the Dobbs ruling that ended federal abortion rights, Republicans have learned how unpopular is their effort to enact and enforce right-wing, Christian Nationalist ideology. Now they’ve also been reminded how common IVF, is with recent polling showing 42% of adults have used fertility treatment or know someone who has. From Donald Trump to House Speaker Mike Johnson, members of Congress up for reelection, they started spreading lies and disinformation about where they stood on IVF.

As president, Mr. Trump enabled the Alabama ruling with his three radical picks for the U.S. Supreme Court. Even as they pretend to be shocked, Republican lawmakers are actively seeking a “life begins at conception” law with no IVF exception. Their phony declarations of support for IVF were everywhere. As they have in the past, some news media outlets helped spread the disinformation.

Once again, look no further than The New York Times. Political reporters there know where lawmakers stand on abortion. They certainly know where House Speaker Mike Johnson stands. Johnson began his political career fighting abortion clinics in his home state of Louisiana; he then worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal group that brought the legal challenge that toppled Roe. Johnson rates an A+ from anti-abortion groups like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America; he was a featured speaker at last month’s “March for Life” in D.C. Johnson has also sponsored multiple anti-abortion bills including the 2023 “Life at Conception Act” that has no exception for IVF.

So the Times had to know Johnson was lying when he released official comments about the Alabama decision and its impact on IVF. Yet they shared his post without needed facts or context in a social media “just in” post:

It took 12 hours for the Times to publish what they already knew: “Speaker Mike Johnson says he supports I.V.F. treatments, despite backing a bill that would threaten them.” You can see how that second line dramatically changes the story. But score a win for Johnson who, with an assist from The New York Times, muddied the water on what has become a politically fraught issue for his party.

The New York Times was not alone. CNN and others also wrote misleading stories without referencing actual voting records, bill sponsorships, public comments and stated policy positions. Commenting on the coverage generally, Vanity Fair columnist Molly Jong Fast had this to say about the hypocrisy: “I think it’s absolutely wild that mainstream media outlets are giving republicans the benefit of the doubt on IVF. If you voted against protecting it, you shouldn’t get credit for a few lame statements now.”

Republicans themselves also put a lot of bad information out there, including Congresswoman Nancy Mace and Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers. They claimed to support IVF, but fact checkers pointed out that while in Congress he’s supported four bills that have the same effect as the Alabama court ruling.  Then there’s Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA), who conceived her children through IVF but co-sponsored anti-IVF legislation. Steele’s hypocrisy did get called out by The New Republic and The Daily Kos with these headlines: “GOP Congresswoman Shows Mind-Blowing Hypocrisy on Alabama IVF Ruling” and “GOP congresswoman who used IVF wants to ban IVF,” respectively. Like Rogers, Steele also got fact-checked on social media.

Every reporter in the country must know by now that they are guilty of spreading lies when they report on what Donald Trump says without providing any context or history or fact checking.  They are choosing to spread the misinformation anyway. This time, Trump got the headlines, news alerts and social media posts he was surely craving with a statement “defending IVF treatment.” NBC News breathlessly failed when they wrote: “BREAKING: Former President Trump calls on Alabama lawmakers to protect IVF services after state Supreme Court ruling.”  No mention there of Trump’s role in banning abortion and pushing for hardline, embryos-are-babies policies. Hours after Trump’s statement, his press secretary was pressed on exactly what the former president meant, and she wouldn’t say if he supported national IVF protections:

 

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The failure to cover the truth about Trump’s views on reproductive rights is not new. Earlier this month, The New York Times ran a headline which was widely copied by other news organizations: “Trump Privately Expresses Support for a 16-Week Abortion Ban.” If that were news, it would come as a shock to his anti-abortion allies who are crafting more draconian measures for him to deploy if he’s re-elected. As Jill Filipovic writes in Slate:

“These groups are clear that on Day One of a Trump presidency, they expect their man in the White House to end the Biden administration’s directive that medical workers have to save pregnant women’s lives, even if doing so requires offering those women abortions. A Trump Environmental Protection Agency will be told to reclassify abortion pills as “forever chemicals,” which will subject them to even tighter regulation. A proposal from one anti-abortion group would mandate that any doctor who prescribes the pills will be tasked with retrieving and disposing of the embryo or fetus post-abortion—an absolutely insane, disgusting, outrageous rule that is wholly impossible to carry out in practice. Some of the groups with Trump’s ear just want him to ban the pills entirely, rolling back FDA approval of one of the safest prescription medications on the market. I don’t see any universe in which Trump would not sign a national abortion ban if one were delivered to him.”

Republicans from top to bottom are responsible for nasty, brutish and wildly unpopular laws around reproduction. In this election season, they are trying to pretend they didn’t mean it, or that they didn’t foresee the consequences. As I’ve said before, good reporting is not to be confused with the stenographic amplification of lies. It is not that hard to tell the truth. And that is, after all, the only justification for publishing the news.

Jennifer Schulze is a former Chicago journalist who talks media every month on WCPT 820AM on “Live, Local & Progressive with Joan Esposito” with former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob. You can follow her on Threads @jenniferschulzechi or Twitter/X @NewsJennifer.