The inflammatory language targeting a reproductive rights measure on Ohio’s fall ballot is the type of messaging that is common in the closing weeks of a highly contested initiative campaign — warning of “abortion on demand” or “dismemberment of fully conscious children” if voters approve it.
Only the messaging isn’t just coming from the anti-abortion groups that oppose the constitutional amendment. It’s being promoted on the official government website of the Republican-controlled Ohio Senate.
And because the source is a government website, the messaging is being prioritized in online searches for information about Issue 1, the question going before Ohio voters Nov. 7 to enshrine abortion access in the state Constitution.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
(tldr: 3 sentences skipped)
And because the source is a government website, the messaging is being prioritized in online searches for information about Issue 1, the question going before Ohio voters Nov. 7 to enshrine abortion access in the state Constitution.
(tldr: 3 sentences skipped)
“It’s a really strategic way to make something appear to be neutral information and fact when that’s not the reality,” said Laura Manley, executive director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
(tldr: 12 sentences skipped)
Under Google’s search quality evaluator guidelines, government sites are generally given added weight on the grounds that they present trustworthy, verifiable, authoritative content in the interest of the common good.
(tldr: 1 sentences skipped)
But of course, the mainstream media won’t pick this up because it’s factually incorrect and basically lies,” said Democratic state Sen. Bill DeMora, whose caucus was angered by the blog and its home on the Senate’s official page.
(tldr: 5 sentences skipped)
John Fortney, spokesman for the state Senate’s majority Republicans, said “On The Record” doesn’t cost the public anything because it’s hosted on an existing government platform and is put together by his staff.
(tldr: 12 sentences skipped)
“There’s a difference between delivering a campaign speech to an anti-abortion group and putting these kinds of narratives on an official government website that’s designed to inform voters,” said Ziegler, a leading historian on the abortion debate.
(tldr: 6 sentences skipped)
The original article contains 1,274 words, the summary contains 243 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!