Does Media Manipulate Teen Risky Behavior Report?

Here's a great case study in media manipulation. Let's examine two articles about the teen risky behavior and sex in USA.

Here's the first article. This one's from Breitbart, via Drudge.

US teens having less sex, drugs

US teens are having less sex, doing fewer drugs and smoking fewer cigarettes than those who grew up in the 1990s, a study released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found.

They are also more likely to use condoms when they do have sex, wear a seat belt and avoid getting into a car with a driver who's been drinking, the national study of youth risk behavior found.

Sounds like great news.

But the left is desperatly clings to the mantra "abstinance education doesn't work," so here's the second article. This ones from the Washington Post via Azcentral.

Report: Efforts to reduce teen sex, STDs faltering

WASHINGTON - The nation's campaign to get more teen-agers to delay sex and use condoms is faltering, threatening to undermine the highly successful effort to reduce teen pregnancy and protect young people from sexually transmitted diseases, federal officials reported Wednesday.

So which article is accurate? Well if you read closely, we will see that the Post article is a masterpiece of media manipulation.

Notice the use of the word "faltering"? That's brilliant. It's obviously bad when efforts "falter," but what does it mean? Well, the reality is that the first article is accurate..."US teens are having less sex, doing fewer drugs and smoking fewer cigarettes." But the Post spins reality of the decrease by emphasizing that the rates aren't decreasing as fast as they did in the past.

Then we get the scary quotes from the condom advocates. "We have a number of signs that are all going exactly in the wrong direction,"

Here's another great hand-wringing quote. "This had been one of the great good news stories in the public health field, and now we're at grave risk of seeing the good news turn into bad news,"

Notice that we have "signs" and we are at "grave risk." Of course the actual "facts" are that teens are having less sex.

So far it's all spin. Here's the part that's actually false.

"Since we've started pushing abstinence, we have seen no change in the numbers on sexual activity," said John Santelli, chairman of the Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University. "The other piece of it is abstinence education spends a good amount of time bashing condoms. So it's not surprising, if that's the message young people are getting, that we're seeing condom use start to decrease."

No change in the numbers? Hmm. The report said the numers are dropping. Condom use decreasing? No. The report said that concom use is increasing.

This quote is beautiful.

"We may be witnessing the beginning of a trend where we're reaping the harvest of medically inaccurate and ineffective sex education, which is abstinence-until-marriage sex education,"

"We may be witnessing the beginning of a trend" That's meaningless. After all, if I think the Republicans are going to dominate national politics for the next 40 years, but I have no evidence, I can say that "we may be witnessing the beginning of a trend."

So why the manipulation? Follow the money.

The report comes as Congress is debating whether to reauthorize another $50 million in federal funding for sex education programs on top of the $126 million that already has been approved for this year.

It's hard to keep up the "abstinance education doesn't work" mantra if the article says. "US teens are having less sex. So the MSM manipulates the story.

The Republic is sure to follow with an "abstinance doesn't work "editorial." The only question is whether or not you are going to fall for it.

Editor's note: We believe that Abstinence Only education alone will not work unless the teenagers are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions for their behaviors.