All in the Family Planning: 12 Network Employees Also Worked for Planned Parenthood

October 13th, 2016 3:13 PM

We’ve long known of the revolving door between the media and the Democratic party. George Stephanopoulos, Josh Earnest and Chris Matthews are just three of the many who’ve made the transition from policymaking to news shaping, or vice versa.

Less known is the revolving door between America’s busiest abortion facility (which turns 100 on Sunday) and the media. At least 15 employees are professionally connected to both one of the networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) and Planned Parenthood, according to professional networking sites. And 12 of them have, at different points, worked for both a network and Planned Parenthood.

With the ties between the networks and Planned Parenthood, it’s no surprise that ABC, CBS and NBC cover Planned Parenthood the way they do. In September 2015, two months after the Center for Medical Progress released its first video on Planned Parenthood’s dealings with aborted baby parts, the news shows had aired only 0.13% of the footage. They didn’t cover the majority of the videos and actually aired more footage of a Planned Parenthood hearing on those videos than of the actual videos.

And that’s not all. The networks keep quiet about the dangers of abortion to women (never mind the baby) and their bias shows down to their language and word choice. In the presidential race, while the networks readily noted Hillary Clinton’s support from Planned Parenthood, they stayed silent on Donald Trump’s pro-life backing. The networks also boast multiple funding connections with the abortion giant.

On its end, Planned Parenthood has bestowed multiple awards upon the networks for their reporting.

But the networks have a journalistic responsibility to tell the truth. The American public – taxpayers – have a vested interest in the abortion giant. According to its latest annual report (2014—2015), the nation’s largest abortion provider received $553.7 million from the government (and that’s not counting years past).

MRC Culture discovered the employees’ information, publicly available on professional networking site LinkedIn, through search engines. MRC Culture did not log in to a LinkedIn account to search for or find this information.

Here are 12 employees who have worked for a network (ABC, CBS, NBC) who also (beforehand or afterwards) worked at Planned Parenthood, according to professional networking sites.

1. Rachel Andersson: While working as a branding and event marketing consultant, Andersson boasted both NBC Entertainment and Planned Parenthood as clients. She later worked for NBCUniversal, Inc. as a promotional events manager.

2. Krystal Banzon: Banzon interned for Planned Parenthood’s “Office of the President” before working at NBCUniversal, Inc. as corporate diversity and inclusion coordinator and then for NBC Entertainment at NBCUniversal Media as a programming talent diversity and inclusion coordinator.

3. Joe Brancheau: Brancheau worked as the network administrator for Planned Parenthood Golden Gate before becoming a virtualization engineer for NBCUniversal, Inc.

4. Julissa Cardenas: Cardenas worked as a production assistant for NBC-Telemundo before becoming a Planned Parenthood communications coordinator.

5. Todd Cross: NBC Today producer Cross has also worked for news outlets including ABC News (as a videographer) and Dateline NBC (as a field producer and videographer). As a freelance producer and videographer, he has also worked for Planned Parenthood.

6. Chelsey Delaney: Delaney interned at NARAL Pro-Choice Texas in graphic design before she became a multimedia reporter for ABCNews.com. Along the way, she worked with the Guttmacher Institute before reaching her current positions: freelance contributor for Bedsider and UX Lead at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

7. Alencia Johnson: Johnson interned for NBC’s D.C. affiliate before becoming a press officer and, later, a constituency communications assistant director for Planned Parenthood.

8. Andrea Kramar: Kramar interned for NBCUniversal, Inc. before landing a job as digital news associate for ABC’s World News Tonight. Before that, as a PR assistant for Kathy Schaeffer & Associates, Inc., Kramar worked for Planned Parenthood of Illinois.

9. Erika Sánchez: Sánchez has contributed to NBC News and NBC Latino and has also “provided strategic media and communications expertise” to Planned Parenthood, among others.

10. Stuart Schear: Schear worked as a health and science producer for NBC News and later served as Planned Parenthood’s communications vice president.

11. Vivian Siu: Siu held positions at several media outlets, including ABC News Law & Justice Unit (as a reporter), NBC News (as a field producer and videographer), NBC Olympics (as a segment producer and videographer) and NBCUniversal, Inc. (as a field producer) before ending up at Planned Parenthood as a as the director of content strategy and production.

12. Rebecca Willett: Willett worked for ABC National TV sales before working at Planned Parenthood as an online services director and then information services vice president.

MRC Culture found three other network employees who have public connections with Planned Parenthood:

13. Diana Gonzalez: Gonzalez worked as a CBS News correspondent and an NBCUniversal health reporter. She has received an award from Planned Parenthood for her “storytelling skills.”

14. Leo Sacks: Sacks, a former writer and producer for NBC Nightly News, lists Planned Parenthood as an organization that he supports.

15. Cynthia Samuels: Samuels worked as a broadcast executive for NBC and CBS. She also lists Planned Parenthood as an organization she supports.

These are only the employees who have made this information public. It’s anyone’s guess as to how many others there might be. When it comes to the networks, Americans can neither believe everything they hear about Planned Parenthood — nor trust when they simply don’t hear anything.