Welcome. Earlier this evening, I posted this “Viewers Guide to MTV’s Abortion Special: Send young women your love, but give Dr. Drew the side-eye.” I hope you’ll find it useful as you watch the abortion special that is airing right now. I’ll be liveblogging here for the next half hour.

Due to the snowpocalypse, I didn’t get cable back until a little while ago, so I wasn’t able to liveblog the full 16 & Pregnant Reunion, but here are a few of my tweets from the tail end, which featured Markai, whose abortion story will be featured in the special tonight.

During 16 & Pregnant Reunion:

@jennpozner #16&Pregnant #TeenMom push Bush-esque ab-only ed msg: If u have sex, u r punished w/a baby. Viewers guide: http://bit.ly/g3J6ka #16andloved

@jennpozner Why is Dr. Drew counseling teenagers in abusive relationship 2stay together? #16AndPregnant http://bit.ly/g3J6ka #MTVfail

@jennpozner B4 MTV abortion special airs, 1st hypocrisy: #16&Pregnant reunion, Markai’s 2nd pregnancy+abortion never mentioned! http://bit.ly/g3J6ka

@jennpozner #16andPregnant: Dr.Drew asks how Markai is preventing anthr pregnancy. She says,”depo shot.” Her abortion invisible-like her 1130et special!

As Entertainment Weekly reported last week, MTV will air No Easy Decision, a one-time special about teens who have had abortions, tonight at 11:30pm EST, an unfortunate ratings graveyard timeslot. (Exhale, a support organization for women who have had abortions, has organized an excellent companion campaign, “16 & Loved,” where you can send your love and support to the brave young women profiled in the special, and through which young women can support one another. More on that below. Also at the bottom of this post: a viewers guide to help you watch the MTV special with a critical eye.)

Billed as a follow-up to the Viacom channel’s popular 16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom, the special will allow three young women who have had abortions discuss the reasons why they chose to end their pregnancies, and share their feelings about the experience. This is a long-overdue and needed addition to the reality TV discussion about teen pregnancies, nearly a third of which end in abortion — a fact that has been 100% absent on MTV until now.

Media Matters for America has weighed in on TLC’s decision to invite — and then uninvite — me to participate in a podcast about the reality show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska. (My previous two blog posts have discussed what I originally agreed to talk about on the podcast, followed by my response to my segment being scrapped.)

Media Matters’ post is headlined, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska cancels non-political guest’s podcast appearance, fearing politics (Yeah, right).” MM’s Jamison Foster writes:

If you’ve been paying attention to Sarah Palin’s Alaska, you probably know that the folks behind the show are obsessed with pretending that the show doesn’t have anything to do with politics. That obsession took an amusing turn this weekend as media critic Jennifer Pozner, author of a new book about so-called “reality television,” was invited to participate in a SPA podcast — then abruptly un-invited.

Foster quotes from podcast host Brian Reich’s explanation for the segment’s cancellation, and his statement that “Sarah Palin’s Alaska is not a political show.” (Reich’s comments are printed in full at the bottom of yesterday’s Reality Bites Back blog post.) Foster concludes:

I was working this afternoon with an old SNL episode on in the background, when I stumbled on a vintage “Weekend Update” segment with Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey that I wish I’d been able to quote in Reality Bites Back:

Jimmy Fallon: Married By America contestant, Denise, is expected to be removed from FOX’s new reality series, after it was revealed that she is still married. Meanwhile, Candy was thrown off of FOX’s Vagina Auction for having dude parts.

Jimmy Fallon: It’s a good episode this week.

Tina Fey: Yeah. It was a good Vagina Auction this week.

Jimmy Fallon: Big ratings.

Gotta love it! I don’t have the clip online, but if you do, let me know.