Duquesne University, the nation’s only Catholic Spiritan University, honored NBC News Washington correspondent and moderator of PBS’ “Washington Week” Yamiche Alcindor with the school’s inaugural “Duquesne University Award for Ethics and Integrity in Journalism.”
University President Ken Gormley said that Ms. Alcindor “represents high standards that the university promotes in its year-old Institute for Ethics and Integrity in Journalism.”
In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Gormley said that Alcindor’s story closely aligns with the story of Duquesne University, which was founded by Catholic missionaries in 1878. Gormley aligned Alcindor’s coverage of “people whose voices are not often heard” with the Spiritan mission of “making sure that all voices are heard.”
During her acceptance speech, Alcindor, a self-described Catholic, claimed that every woman she spoke with on the ground in the 10 to 15 states she visited leading up to this year’s midterm election, including those identifying as conservative, was “uncomfortable” with the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Alcindor’s comment stood in contrast to reporting from her own network, NBC News, which reported that exit polls conducted on Election Day found that 87 percent of Republican women were enthusiastic or satisfied with the overturning of Roe v Wade.
The journalistic integrity of the Ethics and Integrity in Journalism award recipient was also questionable in her coverage of the Roe v Wade draft opinion released in May when she opined that “women who are poor, women of color…will be forced to have pregnancies that they cannot afford to terminate, and pregnancies that will then turn into children.”
Yamiche Alcindor is worried that "women who are poor, women of color…will be forced to have pregnancies that they cannot afford to terminate, and pregnancies that will then turn into children." pic.twitter.com/oqhd1vD11y
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 3, 2022
Duquesne University has made other questionable decisions related to abortion this year, despite its history as a Catholic institution.
In April, Gormley signed a letter in support of the University of Pittsburgh’s annual state funding despite the fact that the university was using fetal tissue from elective abortions in research done by the university.
House Republicans had requested a provision that would require a university financial officer to submit a sworn statement promising that their school would not use such tissue in order to get state funding.
The Republicans were unsuccessful in halting any funding for Pitt due to its use of selective abortion of fetal tissue.
