Free Beacon: WashPost Tones Down Reporter's Fangirl Reaction to Pro-PP Seth Meyers Segment

October 1st, 2015 7:34 PM

David Rutz at the Washington Free Beacon discovered The Washington Post scrambled to change a blog post gushing over NBC late-night host Seth Meyers, and how his attempt to ape Jon Stewart on Wednesday night “explains everything you need to know about the Planned Parenthood controversy....grab your headphones and be confused no more."

Aaron Blake, managing editor of the Post political blog “The Fix,” told the Free Beacon, “We updated the post to more accurately reflect Meyers’s clear point of view on this issue.”

The original Post entry on the segment, written by Amber Phillips for “The Fix,” was headlined “The Planned Parenthood Controversy, Explained By Seth Meyers [Video].” The new version is more accurately headlined “Seth Meyers goes hard at GOP for its Planned Parenthood hearing [Video].” It notes there was an update but doesn’t explain what was changed or when.

Rutz noted the differences in the tone between the first take and the second was “striking” and “Phillips did not note that Meyers failed to show any of the undercover videos that actually jump-started the probe into Planned Parenthood.” The first version of the article read:

These past few days have been a whirlwind of news about the women’s health care nonprofit, Planned Parenthood.

In fact, Planned Parenthood has been in the news for several months now, and the evolving story will probably continue to be part of the national debate this fall and winter. It could even be the sticking point in a potential December government shutdown.

This all started when … well, we’ve already written about the drama a lot here on The Fix. But if you’re understandably still a little confused, we’ll let Seth Meyers take it from here.

In seven minutes, the host of NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers explains everything you need to know about the Planned Parenthood controversy.

True, he does it with typical late-night snark that pretty clearly conveys his opinion about it all. But as far as the facts go, Meyers does a pretty good job. So grab your headphones and be confused no more.

The second version, Rutz reported, “scrubs the pro-Meyers tone for one that more accurately shows Meyers taking an explicitly liberal angle on the scandal.” It now reads:

These past few days have been a whirlwind of news about the women’s health-care nonprofit Planned Parenthood.

In fact, Planned Parenthood has been in the news for several months now, and the evolving story will probably continue to be part of the national debate this fall and winter. It could even be the sticking point in a potential December government shutdown.

Meyers spent much of that seven minutes going pretty hard after Republicans — in a way you’d more likely expect from the old Daily Show or Colbert Report.

A sampling of Meyers’s take:

    -- That Planned Parenthood is the “most popular political entity in the country.” (This is probably a stretch.)

     -- He hit the GOP for not letting Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards answer questions and interrupting her.

     -- He noted a chart used by committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) wasn’t exactly a fair portrayal of Planned Parenthood’s number of breast exams versus abortions. The chart basically had no y-axis and was based on data from an anti-abortion-rights group.

     -- He called Rep. John Duncan’s (R-Tex.) question about whether Richards expected to be treated more easily because she is a woman “stupid.”

     -- He said that Republicans “don’t believe in funding for affordable health care.”

That was the favorite wisecrack for Planned Parenthood: "They made a chart with no Y Axis. Why? Because they don't believe in funding for affordable health care!" They posted their buddy Seth on their Facebook page: