CNN's Wolf Blitzer hounded Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Wednesday's Situation Room over his hearing on Planned Parenthood's federal funding, and carried water for the abortion giant. Blitzer quibbled over a chart that was used at the hearing that showed the increase in abortions that Planned Parenthood did, and a concurrent decrease in the number of cancer screenings and other preventive services it does. He then touted a chart from the left-wing Vox site that supposedly "gives a more accurate reflection of what was going on."
Pro-lifers
By Tom Blumer | September 30, 2015 | 7:29 PM EDT
In three previous posts yesterday and today, I have noted obvious distortions and untruths in Cecile Richards' testimony this week before a House committee.
I didn't mean to save the best (really the worst) for a fourth post, but I came across an jaw-dropping item at LifeNews.com this afternoon. It covers an assertion Richards made during the House hearing that is either one of the biggest lies of the 21st century thus far or its most glaring example of hermetically sealed ignorance. Either way, the fact that it hasn't made its way into the establishment press virtually proves that their mission is to protect Richards and her organization, not to tell its readers, listeners and viewers what is really happening.
By Matthew Balan | September 30, 2015 | 2:17 PM EDT
On Wednesday's New Day, CNN's Chris Cuomo acted more like a pro-Planned Parenthood prosecutor than a journalist in his ten-minute-plus interview of David Daleiden. Cuomo repeatedly badgered Daleiden – who managed the undercover project that uncovered the abortion giant's sale of aborted babies' organs and tissues – over the summary videos of the footage his organization shot. He also touted how "Planned Parenthood – and other people who see [them] – says no; you doctored them. You're doctoring it to make it seem like what you want it to be."
By Tom Blumer | September 30, 2015 | 1:57 PM EDT
Tuesday afternoon, Alan Fram laughably headlined his coverage of Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards' appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee at the Associated Press as follows: "FACING CONGRESS, PLANNED PARENTHOOD CHIEF REBUTS VIDEOS."
She did no such thing. Most notably, Fram quoted Richards making the following statement to the committee: "The outrageous accusations leveled against Planned Parenthood, based on heavily doctored videos, are offensive and categorically untrue." Not merely "heavily edited," but "doctored," which according to the dictionary in this context means "to tamper with; falsify." Unfortunately for Richards and her group's supporters, in a report released yesterday, forensic experts have concluded that the Center for Medical Progress videos she criticized are "authentic" (bolds are mine throughout this post):
By Tom Blumer | September 30, 2015 | 10:03 AM EDT
In Congressional testimony on Monday and Tuesday, Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards twisted or failed to tell the truth in several instances.
As shown last night, one of them related to how many of its facilities are involved in the provision of fetal tissue for compensation. Her claim that it's "less than 1 percent" is only plausible if the organization has recently terminated such involvement at many facilities known to have participated in the practice in the recent past. A second more obviously untrue claim, whose falsehood has been completely ignored by the national establishment press, is her contention that "we've never stated" that Planned Parenthood performs mammograms at any of its facilities. Well, yes she has — and as will be seen later, an awful lot of people who you might think would know better still believe the lie.
By Curtis Houck | September 30, 2015 | 3:14 AM EDT
Not surprisingly, liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow led off the Tuesday edition of her eponymous show by opining on the House hearing featuring Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards and lamenting how “the whole Republican Party is more unified to try to destroy Planned Parenthood than they are unified on anything else” with their “demagoguery” that she determined worked out “very badly” for them.
New Republic Writer: Backing Fiorina On PP Videos Shows That Conservatism Is ‘Defined By…Imagined Victimization’
By Tom Johnson | September 29, 2015 | 9:28 PM EDT CJ Pearson, the 13-year-old conservative social-media star, could use a few good role models, suggested TNR’s Brian Beutler in a Monday article. After noting that Pearson has been “revealed as the perpetrator of a number of hoaxes,” Beutler mused that such behavior isn’t surprising given the ideological company the youngster keeps.
“He's coming of age in a movement that often treats reality as subordinate to perception; that will embrace obvious distortions of facts if doing so might move the needle of public opinion,” alleged Beutler, who claimed that some of those factual distortions were found in Carly Fiorina’s statements about the Planned Parenthood videos during the recent Republican presidential debate.
By Matthew Balan | September 29, 2015 | 2:08 PM EDT
On Tuesday's CNN Newsroom, Carol Costello treated Planned Parenthood's own talking points about "three percent" of its services are abortions as "facts." Costello emphasized that "$500 million in federal funds goes to Planned Parenthood. None of that money...pays for abortions....Planned Parenthood says only three percent of their services are dedicated to abortion. The group says 97 percent of its services are for things like...breast exams...cancer screenings and contraception."
By Curtis Houck | September 29, 2015 | 7:22 AM EDT
Filling in for Anderson Cooper on Monday’s AC360, John Berman chided Carly Fiorina spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores over Fiorina’s outspoken criticism of Planned Parenthood in the wake of their aborted baby parts video scandal with the CNN host imploring Flores to consider admitting that her boss “is getting it wrong” about the content of the videos.
By Clay Waters | September 28, 2015 | 12:04 PM EDT
New York Times' reporter Jackie Calmes has been the paper's pointman in its journalistic campaign in defense of the nation's largest abortion provider, in the wake of undercover videos by David Daleiden documenting the callous sale of baby organs for money, sometimes without the knowledge of the mothers. Calmes, whose reporting has reliably shifted the subject from the gruesome videos to alleged Republican "overreach," laid out the organization's defense strategy on Sunday: "Reacting to Videos, Planned Parenthood Fights to Regain Initiative."
By Curtis Houck | September 27, 2015 | 10:49 PM EDT
Hours after 2016 Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina sparred with NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd over the Planned Parenthood videos, Sunday’s NBC Nightly News similarly went to bat for the abortion provider against Fiorina as White House correspondent Kristen Welker scolded Fiorina for promoting videos with “doctored and unrelated footage.”
By NB Staff | September 25, 2015 | 11:57 PM EDT
NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham appeared Friday night on The Steve Malzberg Show on Newsmax TV to discuss the Pope and President Obama.
First they discussed the U.S. News website trying to argue the pope “echoed” Obama in attacking Christianity in his speech to Congress. That wasn’t true, Graham said.