Oklahoma -- Syndicated columnist Joseph Sobran writes in the Daily Oklahoman that the "hard-hitting" media coverage of the war in Kosovo has "disarmed opposition to U.S. intervention in the Balkans, lending powerful emotional support to the view that we must 'do something' to alleviate the suffering."

But, he says, when "it comes to abortion, the news media consistently practice soft-hitting journalism.

They discuss abortion in abstract terms, with antiseptic references to 'fetuses' (not 'children'). They adopt the rhetoric of the pro-abortion -- sorry, 'pro-choice' -- side," he says. Sobran argues that the most mainstream news outlets "have observed a rigid self-imposed taboo against graphic reporting on abortion ... The media's vaunted mission of informing the public doesn't apply."

He writes that when "an abortion clinic is attacked, that's news, and the networks can be counted on not only to report it, but to dramatize it. They even cast abortionists as martyrs."

Sobran concludes, "But what goes on inside those clinics every day -- that isn't news, or the stuff of drama. 'Fetuses' don't qualify as martyrs" (United Press Syndicate/Daily Oklahoman, 6/29).