Planned Parenthood: the media’s chosen their side

Last updated on: January 22, 2016 at 8:10 am by Jane the Actuary

Planned Parenthood: the media’s chosen their side 2016-01-22T08:10:19-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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As you know if you’ve been following the reports on the Center for Medical Progress’s expose of Planned Parenthood, they have released multiple videos now, each more awful than the prior one. The most recent is an interview with a former procurement worker, describing her experiences, including that of a late-term baby with a beating heart.

But if you read the Chicago Tribune, you’d know nothing, except that, according to an article in today’s paper, available online at the L.A. Times, the videos have

also roused support for Planned Parenthood, which provides a variety of health services for women, including abortion and contraceptive services. Abortion accounts for about 3% of the services it provides, the organization says.

On one front, #StandWithPP petitions have garnered more than 900,000 online signatures, the group said.

On another, the respected New England Journal of Medicine published two essays in support of the organization. One concludes: “We thank the women who made the choice to help improve the human condition through their tissue donation. … We are outraged by those who debase these women, this work, and Planned Parenthood by distorting the facts for political ends.”

By the time the seventh video by the Irvine-based Center for Medical Progress was posted online Wednesday, Planned Parenthood had launched its own public relations offensive to debunk what its leaders decry as spurious charges.

Further attempting to discredit the videos, the story continues,

At least one conservative consultant working on the anti-Planned Parenthood effort had a hand in the so-called Swift boat campaign. Peter Robbio, who represents the Center for Medical Progress, handled public relations for the book “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry.” Although the Swift boat claims were later discredited, they seriously damaged Kerry’s White House hopes.

Now, it seems to me that the claims were never discredited, except by media proclamation of such. But now the media has a new tactic, a sort of “reverse-Swift-boating,” in which they simply decry accusations by opponents as Swift-boating, and, by association, discredited.

This is awful. This is disgusting, for the media to so clearly come to Planned Parenthood’s defense. And it’s frightening not just because of this particular issue, but because it exposes the media’s willingness to be patently one-sided. We’ve got an election coming up, and this is a reminder that the press is not afraid to take sides, much as they would like to profess otherwise.

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abortion

Planned Parenthood

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