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Forceps, Lies, and Videotape: Planned Parenthood’s Favorite Talking Point Evaporates
“Heavily edited.” … “Deceptively edited.”
These are the de rigueur, “don’t you forget it” modifiers faithfully deployed – by Planned Parenthood and its elite media allies alike –to describe damning undercover videos captured by citizen journalists at the Center for Medical Progress.
Not sure how one would be unaware at this hour, but CMP caught high-level Planned Parenthood officials – on video in their own words – negotiating prices for aborted babies’ eyeballs, hearts, lungs, livers, spinal cords, and brains. You’d expect that these would be grim-whisper conversations, but no.
Planned Parenthood employees are seen masticating salads, dreaming of Lamborghinis, yuckety-yucking about how their “busy day” resulted in a big freezer sack full of “cases,” and picking through a tray of baby body parts, climatically proclaiming “Another boy!” Their tone was easy-breezy when describing how to “crush” just right and exposing Planned Parenthood’s willingness to consider illegally altering abortion procedures (a “less crunchy technique”) in order to pluck out the freshest, smoothest organs for “fetal tissue” dealers.
It’s no wonder that Planned Parenthood’s first public move was to apologize for the “tone” of senior executive Dr. Deborah Nucatola, who starred in the first released video. Just before bolting the panic room door, Planned Parenthood blurted “heavily edited” at its journo-prop stenographers, who were witnessed hastily pasting the phrase on the inside cover of their stylebooks.
Before long, Planned Parenthood paid Fusion GPS, a partisan opposition research firm with little discernible experience in forensic investigation, to put the Seal of Real on its favorite shiny object. Though the report conceded there was no “widespread evidence of substantive video manipulation,” it was up-up-and-away with the narrative.
“Make sure NO ONE watches those videos” was the order.
Media outlets rendered a sharp salute.
Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards appeared Sept. 29 before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Richards waved the “deceptively edited” banner with great vigor. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman demanded that the Fusion GPS report be entered into the record.
Committee chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz countered, revealing that another analysis of the videos had been completed. Only this one was a thorough analysis of the full videos by a legitimate independent forensics and cybersecurity company whose clients include Fortune 500 companies.
Coalfire Systems issued a report Monday (commissioned by my employer Alliance Defending Freedom) which found that 10 full-footage videos the Center for Medical Progress recorded while undercover at Planned Parenthood facilities and related locations “are authentic and show no evidence of manipulation or editing.”
Now, we don’t expect Planned Parenthood to throw up its collective bloody hands and say “Okay, you’re right. The videos totally busted us.”
But what of the elite media, which oozed and gooed at the Fusion GPS hackery? As I punch this out, not one of Planned Parenthood’s liquid-luggers at the New York Times, Politico, Washington Post, et al., has so much as responded with a “thanks, got it” when the contra-narrative arrived in their inboxes (and it arrived in all of their inboxes and even some Twitter feeds).
I get it. The more real the videos are perceived to be, the more likely people are to watch them. And the more people watch them — the more they know the truth about Planned Parenthood’s inestimable barbarism — the more likely they are to support cutting off the taxpayer cash flow once-and-for-all.
Published in Politics
One wonders why they are so adamant that the videos are faked/heavily edited/don’t exist. Their protestations suggest that if these fakes were real, then people would naturally be outraged. Therefore they must be faked.
It’s as if Planned Parenthood itself is admitting that what they’re doing is evil/illegal/horrific.
They might want to rethink their narrative. Because they may have incriminated themselves with their own protestations.
Planned Parenthood and the media are offering people on the left plausible deniability so they can keep supporting abortion and all that goes with it while still feeling good about themselves.
This from the same media that calls Michael Moore films “documentaries”.
Excellent post, Greg. Thank you!
This whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. I just watched several of the videos for the first time. They have dismembered babies, their body parts strewn about a pie dish while they poke and prod them with tweezers, and they hold a casual conversation. Sick, sick, sick. Evil.
Wow, no joke, not 20 minutes before reading this post, I heard and was taken aback by the local DC-area ABC news anchor saying in a report on this “The videos, which are heavily edited, by the way…”
It was a very jarring bit of bias that left me dumbfounded, considering the topic at hand. I don’t know how these people live with themselves.
Planned Parenthood know they’ve been completely flayed with these videos, and that even their staunchest supporters would probably vomit into their cupped hands if they witnessed what really goes on there every day.
So they have no choice but to fall back on one of the basest propaganda moves: repeat a lie often, until it becomes the truth. They know the videos weren’t manipulated or deceptively edited, but if they keep saying it, the seed is planted in the public mind. PP advocates who’d prefer not to imagine the real-life horror movie have a safe mental place to escape to, and the public has plausible deniability.
As for the mainstream media, it’s scarcely even worth complaining about its bias and selective reporting these days. Opponents need to push their message out through whatever channels are available, and the number of them is increasing. I mean, we’re here talking about this now, right?
What does “heavily edited” mean anyway? In movies and television, it means the raw footage was cut down to manageable pieces to form a coherent story. I suppose the anchor would like to watch hours of uneventful footage like people ordering appetizers or taking bathroom breaks while they sit in the anteroom waiting for their appointments with the bigwigs.
Ms. Richards is now under oath denying the validity of the videos. Somewhere, Scooter Libby is wondering how he got put in jail, if she can get away with it (which she probably will).
This is from the same media that actually heavily edited the George Zimmerman 911 call to advance a narrative.
Mollie Hemingway wrote a funny on this.
Every bit of video you see on television news or documentaries has been deceptively edited and/or manipulated.
Appreciate it! Thanks!
In this instance it means “that which Planned Parenthood does not want you to see.”
“Heavily edited” is an adjective that applies to approximately 100% of the investigative-journalism stories that 60 Minutes has produced during its entire existence.
How stupid do they think we are? We can see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears what was discussed. It’s not like there’s videotape on the cutting room floor containing a sequence wherein a Planned Parenthood official says, “By the way, all that stuff I said about fetal body parts? I was just kidding around. Obviously, that would be repugnant as well as potentially illegal.”
NPR has embarrassed themselves by passing along Planned Parenthood talking points as if they were news coverage.
Thank you for the summary Greg Scott!
Healthcare that is not provided by planned parenthood
-Mammograms -Prenatal Care -Breast Biopsies -Breast Cancer Diagnostic Care -Primary Health Care -Diabetes Treatment -Treatment for Elevated Cholesterol -Treatment for Elevated Blood Pressure -Holistic Medicine -Obstetrical Care -Pediatric Care -Care for HIV Positive Individuals -Infertility Treatments -Natural Family Planning Instruction -Care for Uterine Fibroids -Treatment for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome -Adoption Placement -Prostate Exams -Uterine Laser Ablation -Cervical Laser Ablation -Miscarriage Management -Bladder Disorders and Urinary Problems -Prolapsed Pelvic Floor Concerns -Laparoscopic Procedures -Hysterectomy -Treatment of Endometriosis -Polyp Removal -Endometrial Ablation -BRCA Testing -Bone Density Testing -Treatment of Pelvic Pain -Treatment of Vulvar Pain -Molar Pregnancy Follow Up
Planned Parenthood DOES provide:
-First and Second Trimester Abortions -Limited STD testing and treatment -Pap Smears for Women in Child Bearing Years -Limited Contraceptive Methods
Lets put some of the myths to rest.
Seriously, if they really provided heath care for low income women– why would they not offer the above?